Bicycling as Dialogue

We are bicyclists who share a passion for dialogue. The two of us sat down together to explore the intriguing similarities between the two activities. At the top of our list was the notion of proprioception. Proprioception is the sense that enables an organism to relate to stimuli produced within itself. It is the basis of physical balance, and as such is indispensable to the action of riding a bicycle.

In their essay, “Dialogue: a proposal,” David Bohm, Donald Factor, and Peter Garrett remarked that our thought processes seem to lack the capacity of self-observation that the body has. Or, rather, our self-observations are so clouded by habits, fears, and desires that it is difficult to distinguish between rational and irrational elements of thought. They suggested that dialogue enables a “collective proprioception,” providing a space where attention can be given to the way our thoughts arise from a jumble of not always coherent elements.

“Each listener,” they wrote, “is able to reflect back to each speaker, and to the rest of the group, a view of some of the assumptions and unspoken implications of what is being expressed along with that which is being avoided.” Bohm and his colleagues viewed such reflection as a way of slowing down the thought process so that we would “be able to observe it while it is actually occurring.”

Riding across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver, one discovers there are very few roads that are really flat. That’s a lesson Charles learned in 1971 when he took the trip on his then state-of-the-art Gitane bike that felt like it weighed a ton. When he had traveled west in a Volkswagen van a couple of years earlier, the experience seemed to merge into a succession of gas stations and restaurants.

The ideal of automobile travel is to insulate the driver from the uneven-ness, climatic variation, and noise of the environment. The ads for a new Lexus stress a comparison between its interior and luxurious living room furniture. Similarly, the isolated individual’s thought process conceals from the thinker the noise and incoherence behind the thought.

Dialogue, as we understand it, is an activity distinct from debate or discussion. In dialogue there is no overarching purpose to persuade. Rather, the intention is to communicate and to develop meaning, which requires receptivity to other perspectives. Nor can bicycling be reduced to a mere means for transporting oneself from point A to point B. The cyclist is constantly negotiating the environment, the changing conditions and surfaces, and the machine itself. The bicycle becomes an extension of the body, and one’s ability to ride well stands in proportion to one’s ability to read and attune oneself with the terrain, the conditions, the bike, one’s movement through space, and one’s body and mind: proprioception.

Moving through the environment with attention and awareness dissolves the boundaries between self and environment. Contemporary philosopher Ken Wilber has pointed out that there can be no ecological sustainability as long as people are only talking about sustainability from the perspective of distinct egos, feeling separate from that environment. It is only by breaking down barriers between the body in space and the space itself, suspending our self-deluding assumptions, and becoming attuned to the world that we can achieve the awareness necessary for sustainability.

Pedaling a bike captures the intrinsic joy in rhythmic movement and transmits it to the wheels that propel the rider to a destination that perhaps was just an excuse for the ride. In dialogue, it is often the rhythm and resonance of attentive conversation that leaves a deeper impression than what was said. Early 20th century philosopher Martin Buber once said that in its highest moments, dialogue reaches out beyond word and gesture; the relationships between two or more selves create meaning. The possibilities of such dialogue, just like the possibilities a bike ride can generate, are limited only by the degrees of proprioception, of awareness. Bicycling and dialogue may not be perfectly analogous, but there is enough of an affinity between them to make for a good conversation… or something to think about while pedaling.

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About the Authors

Tom Walker is a proud dad, grandfather, pop-up book maker, and activist with the Work Less Party. He walks, rides his bike, takes transit, and lives three blocks from the food co-op where he works three or four days a week. [more...]

Charles Scott is studying dialogue as a grad student in the faculty of education at SFU, and he likes to promote SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. When he’s not immersed in books, he’ll tool around town on that 36-year-old Gitane touring bike. When he can, he heads for the hills: hiking in summer, skiing in winter. [more...]