The Importance of Balance in Motorcycle Riding... and Life

On this episode of Our American Stories, Brent Timmons, an Our American Stories listener from Delaware, shares the story of a lesson in risk that his son learned while riding his cherished bicycle.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. They're truly some of our favorites.
Up next a story from Brent Timmins. Today, he shares

(00:30):
with us a story entitled balance, Take It Away.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Brent Asher had left on his motorcycle for work at
a summer job he had just graduated, and needed to
make a quick stop at his high school to drop
off his barrow, laptop, and calculus calculator. Thirty minutes later,
my wife answers the phone. The information she was given

(00:57):
was brief. Asher had had a motorcycle accident in front
of the school. They thought he would be okay, but
the ambulance was coming and may end up taking him
to the hospital. That was about the extent of the information.
Both of us quickly thought the worst, like he had
collided with another vehicle when either turning into the school

(01:19):
or coming out. The wording thought he would be okay
registered in my mind as non life threatening injuries. Where
would they take him was the first question out of
my mouth. Tina called the school right back and was
told it would be Nannacoke. We wondered how we would
know whether to go to the school or to head

(01:40):
directly to the hospital. This state lasted about three minutes.
I wouldn't call it hysteria. It was more like a
laser focus on how we were going to get to
where our son was. Than Asher called, He said he
was okay, described a situation and told us we just
needed to come get him and his bike. We know

(02:03):
our son well enough that this immediately put us at ease.
I hooked up the trailer and we headed off. It
was a relatively minor event. Asher was slowly turning into
the drive of the school. They actually caught it on camera,
and he hit a small patch of sand on the asphalt.
The rear end slipped out in a heartbeat, and he

(02:24):
ended up on the ground under the bike. The school
staff was fabulous. They rushed to his aid immediately and
watched over him in the nurse's office as he gathered
his wits and the shaking from the adrenaline wore off.
He had some scrapes, the bike had some scrapes, but overall,
he and his bike would be fine. This is one

(02:47):
of those things, one of those things that remind us
how quickly something can happen, which could alter the future.
It's one of those things that remind us to appreciate
every moment, one of those things that changes us, one
of those things we are thankful for because of the
lessons learned. Motorcycle riding is by nature much riskier than

(03:09):
riding in a car or truck. If you look at
the statistics, it's well, you don't even want to know.
It's a choice made for the known risk. We let
our boys make that choice with that risk, I ride myself.
Why would we do that? Would we rather our boys
didn't engage in such an activity. It isn't that simple.

(03:33):
A life lived without any risk is, well, it's not
really living at all. We take a risk when we
choose a college major in the face of uncertainty. We
take a risk in participating in a sport when we
may possibly be embarrassed by poor performance. We take a
risk in choosing a life partner. We take a risk

(03:54):
in changing jobs. We take a risk in buying a
home and committing to pay a mortgage for the next
thirty years. A life without any risk is a life
of not moving forward, it's not really life at all.
Of course, there are ways to reduce risk, and we
do those things and with a passion. At some point

(04:14):
there is a balancing of the passion to live and
the passion to walk in caution and wisdom, and that's
really part of the secret of life. People choose different
ways to go about it. Maybe you lean on your
faith in God, or maybe you lean on your faith
in yourself. Personally, I've been disappointed in my own strength

(04:35):
way too many times. At the risk of making you
feel like I've tricked you into a discussion about God,
I'll share this after we decide whether there is a
God or not and who that God is comes. What
I'd say is one of the most prevalent debates about faith.
What does God do and what do I do? People

(04:59):
fall all over the spectrum on this. It would take
me volumes to try to communicate where I've landed personally,
and honestly, who really cares what I've concluded. I'll just
say this, I want my boys to walk in wisdom,
to not be averse to taking a risk, and to
trust God in the midst of doing that. Take a risk,

(05:21):
ride safe, and live well.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Take a risk, ride safe, and live well. Wisdom in
all of those words. A special thanks to Monte Montgomery
on the production of that piece, and to Brent Timmins
for a short but profound story with some real, real
life implications as it relates to all of us and
our lives. And we'd love to hear stories from you
about this space. We spend a lot of time talking

(05:47):
about risk and risk taking. Our entrepreneur stories are nothing
but risk stories. A lot of people think entrepreneurs love risk,
but that's not quite right. What we've learned is that
they love to manage risk and that a life without
risk is not worth living, and so they manage risk
better than most of us and live within the space
of risk and real traumatic risk because it's how they're hardwired.

(06:11):
You can't make an entrepreneur any more than you can
make someone ride a motorcycle. It's risky business riding a motorcycle.
I've done it for many years of my life, gave
it up when I had kids, So I made a
very different decision about risk than this family did about,
for instance, riding a motorcycle. Then your risk stories, your
failure stories, because we love both of those and what
you learn from failure to our American Stories dot com.

(06:35):
That's Ouramerican Stories dot com. Brent Timmins story who listens
to us in Connecticut on Spotify of all places, here
on our American Story Folks. If you love the great

(07:31):
American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the Our
American Stories family. If you agree that America is a
good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly
gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast
becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to our Americanstories
dot com now and go to the donate button and

(07:52):
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot com.