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saddle - dawn painter

mind is the ride. a journey through cycling and philosophy. jet mcdonald. unbound press in association with boneshaker magazine. 407pp illus. £16.99

"The question in 'Mind is the Ride' is, what is the apostrophe in 'It's all about the bike?"

mind is the ride - jet mcdonald

when in sixth year at secondary school, i made a study of comparative religion for an end-of-year dissertation. the library book from which much of my information was gleaned, if memory serves, was entitled 'religions of the world' (or something remarkably similar) and written by a presbyterian minister. the contents of such a slim volume were well-written, covering the main points of religions such as hinduism, catholicisim, buddhism, islam etc. of course, even as an impressionable teenager, it was glaringly obvious that each and every one of the above ended with a 'but...', where the author rebutted at least one of the principal tenets of each. the only religion, or subsection thereof, that emerged unscathed, was (surprisingly enough), presbyterianism.

it would appear, however, that i learned enough to gain a comfortable pass in the subject.

i can but admit that, when writing up my findings, it never occurred to compare my findings with a more mundane (relatively speaking) aspect of contemporary life. such as association with the components of a bicycle for instance as espoused by jet mcdonald in his exemplary tome, 'mind is the ride'. this is less of a book and more of a project, having first surfaced some three and a bit years ago in december 2015. at that time, i received an e-mail from unbound which advised: "...a new way to connect authors and readers. Authors present a pitch, you pledge, and when the goal is reached the book is written." that funding was obviously successful, for the end product arrived at thewashingmachinepost in early april this year.

dawn painter

mcdonald and his partner jen set off from southern england to ride over 4,000 miles to india and back again. for many, that simple sentence would be enough to have them put the book back on the shelf. there are endless numbers of books written by those who have cycled across continents, or even all around the world, most of which have scarcely any pertinent content for the avid cyclist, other than the fact that bicycles were used as the means of transport. those are what i believe would be referred to as travelogues, of greater interest to armchair travellers than to keen velocipedinists. but as stated on the inside of the dust cover, "(Jet McDonald) didn't want to write a straightforward travel book. He wanted to go on an imaginitive journey. [...] The age of the travelogue is over: today we need to travel inwardly to see the world with fresh eyes."

dawn painter

of course, it would be a tad pretentious not to admit that 'mind is the ride' isn't, at heart, a travelogue, one that is played out from the saddles of two black bicycles. however, the twist is not only in the quality and perspicacity of the author's writing, but by his understanding of the world's religions and philosophies allied to a superb ability to explain each in a remarkably comprehensible fashion. couple that with the chapter headings and dawn painter's superb illustrations; if you're an admirer of the work of daniel rebour, you will love these.

but first, those chapter titles as witnessed on the contents page: the bottom bracket, the bell, the seat tube, the front hub, etc., etc. mcdonald seamlessly relates each of the above to a series of philosophical and religious musings, matching their existence and importance to the realisation that a bicycle is an agglomeration of parts which add up to a whole that is greater than the sum of each. naturally, the first chapter is entitled 'the virtual triangle'. but while this authorial methodology could have resulted in a particularly dry narrative, mcdonald exhibits a commendable combination of reality and humour.

dawn painter

"What is your purpose? What is the meanng of the rumbling road? What is the unchanging truth at the centre of the central reservation? Why didn't you remove the wheels, pedals and handlebars, put the whole shebang in a suitcase, and take the train?"

for those who may have misunderstood the book's title, expecting the very travelogue denied by the dust jacket, they will scarcely be totally disappointed. jet and jen did indeed ride their bicycles all the way to india, and there are sufficient tales of roads ridden, towns and villages witnessed, people met, and occasional misfortunes experienced, to satisfy those who still hang onto the foolish notion that they might, one day, do exactly the same. but there's no doubting that the book's title was uppermost on mcdonald's daily travel diary and word processor, ultimately combining the bicycle metaphor with his simultaneous journeys through the human mind.

dawn painter

given that all of us at one time or another will have suffered a puncture, snapped a chain or encountered other notable mechanical malfeasances, how we deal with such interruptions to the serenity of the ride, says much about our state of mind: philosophical or otherwise. but, so far as i'm aware, jumping up and down, close to tears, has never proved efficacious in fixing a puncture. thus, even if four hundred pages of concerted philosophical thought, related to the velocipedinal realm offers the portent of a less than enticing read, let me just point out that such an assumption will ultimately prove you wrong.

the relating of cycle componentry to aspects of religion and philosophy may possibly be seen as a bit contrived, but i can assure you it works a great deal better than you could possibly imagine and i seriously doubt you'll find anything else like it on a bookshelf near you.

"Our bikes lay side by side that afternoon on the Dorset back road, their black paintwork soaking up the sun till they too became warm to the touch. There were no cars. No passers-by. No beginnings. No endings. No in-between."

mind is the ride - jet mcdonald | illustrator dawn painter

saturday 18 may 2019

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