Motorcycling is a religious experience

March 15, 1:56 PMDC Motorcycle Travel ExaminerMark Poesch

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Growing up Protestant, I had little appreciation for the purpose of Confession.  But, at 6AM yesterday morning, for the first time in my life, I understood the meaning and the value of the practice.

No, I didn’t wake up to discover that I had sins that I wanted to confess.  I’m a very pragmatic person, able to analyze my expectations for myself, seek to do my best, and generally able to be content regardless of the outcome.  I’ve been fortunate in my life that I can probably count the number of times that I’ve truly felt the need to seek forgiveness on one hand.  (My mother can attest to this, dealing with a child and young adult who was “never wrong” and had to be wrestled to any apology.)

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t make mistakes.  With our recent group riding efforts this season, we’ve made plenty.  Here too, we’ve been very fortunate that none of the mistakes have resulted in any consequence of import.  But in this case, that hasn’t stopped them from weighing upon our minds, or if you prefer, our souls.  In thinking about the partnership our group lead and I have formed, and our communications, it has been the issues weighing on our minds, and our communications to each other, that I realized have become our own form of confession.

By talking through our mistakes, we’re able to seek corrective guidance, ask forgiveness, and through that exchange gain absolution.

The reason these mistakes are of greater significance to us than many others in my life is because they’re a matter of life and death.  As the leaders for the group, we carry a tremendous burden of responsibility in managing the safety of all the riders in our group.  As motorcyclists, we all realize (or should) that riding is a high-risk proposition.  But, our attitude, intention, and attention all determine the outcome.  A mistake in any of these areas, especially as a group, can have disastrous consequences.

So the process of confession is for us a critical part of the group riding experience, helping us to learn from our mistakes, make corrective changes, and improve our approach for the future.

But I would guess that this is not the typical experience for most riders.  In matters of life and death, it is the near-death experience that brings us much closer to the religious experience, in part 2: Motorcycling is a religious experience, Part 2 – at the edge of life and death, having faith.