10 Years Old Riding a Motorbike?

There are things we do at very early age and they get burned into our conscience. The reasons derive maybe from the feelings we had at the moment, maybe it was a traumatic experience, or an empowering event.

It's preferable, of course, to remember the empowering experiences, despite the fact that at that time, we did not realize them as such; not at the age of 10 to 11 anyway.

These events, in fact, stay in our memory.

Most of us experienced success and failure at a very young age. No one learned to walk without falling many times. Even though we fell, time and time again, we kept trying till we walked and even runned and jumped. The "muscles" of daring, were then young and strong. Our instincts were sharp and helped us persevere and achieve our targets.

With time, our muscles that are connected to our preference to use mindfulness over our senses and feelings become atrophied.

It was during summer in Argentina. The late fifties' or early sixties'. According to the family tradition, I joined the young group of the youth movement my older brothers were members of. Every year there was summer camp for all the movement members. The summer camp lasted about a week or ten days if I remember correctly.

It was the first time I spend such a long time and that far away, about 1000 km, away from home.

The camp was not far from a summer resort city by the sea, were one of my mother's sisters had a very nice apartment. Her grown up children left home not long before. My aunt was informed, of course, of my whereabouts and I guess she was asked to keep an eye on me.

I don't recall if it was a day or two after my arrival when she came to visit. She and my uncle were quite well off, and the apartment was very nice. When my aunt saw the tents and make up showers, the mud and dust, weeds with snakes, and wild beasts probably hiding in those weeds, she decided she had to get me away from all of that - and the sooner the better.

The persuasion trials include appealing to my mercy, "Your cousins left home and I am lonely", "we have television" (I came from a small town where there was no TV, 50's, remember?), "a nice soft bed and clean shower". Every attempt failed, and then she drew the "secret weapon"! "There are mini motor bikes for sale, I will give you money and you can ride". All my defenses, of course, collapsed.

A sharp turn in the road left me stumbling and falling over and over again. My shins

were blue and swollen, and my knees and elbows were bloody. Nonetheless, I persisted. On the next turn, I didn't fall! I managed to stay on the bike, and the feeling of achievement and success was so overwhelming that it made an imprint upon my conscience. That unique feeling I had while riding on the motor bike has supported me throughout various difficulties that I had experienced in subsequent years, such as moving to a new country, being an immigrant, going through military service, and more.

Most of us have similar achievement stories.

With time, our muscles that are connected to our preference to use mindfulness over our senses and feelings become atrophied. However, it is possible and worthwhile to train these muscles again, just as one does with physical muscles.