Motorcycle Maintenance

“Craftsmanship means dwelling on a task for a long time and going deeply into it, because you want to get it right.”  Matthew B. Crawford

The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there, said Robert Persig, so it may be this fact, the reality, that I must unwrap my Honda Shadow VT600 from its camouflaged plastic tarpaulin and start the process. For those of you in the (ever growing) Pacific Northwest, you know what that means. Tune up. And then some.

It then comes as a pleasant surprise when the book on tape I randomly selected at the Library last week liberally uses the moto as metaphor. Even better when its author, Matthew B. Crawford, goes as far as to generously quote one of my literary heroes, he of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance fame, Robert Persig. What a terrific audio one-two punch as I navigate from job to job.

Like anything of value, its intrinsic nature must stimulate one's own consideration. Does this match my existing understanding, does it expand my depth of knowledge, does it challenge my beliefs, is it right, true, beautiful, honest and useful? The area of focus for Crawford is the age old dichotomy of collar color, with white taking an overwhelming advantage over blue in the last quarter century. He talks about craftsmanship, integrity and ethics as if they were holy commandments, and how we need to return to product pride and ownership of labor, the mechanic taking joy in success and in his client's satisfaction. This, of course, can be used as a metaphor for our troubling times (I am talking to you NRA).

I was driving back from the PB last night listening to the 6th and final CD, thinking with this type of focused and sincere internal effort suggested by Mr Crawford, I might be able to tune up the Shadow myself, save probably $500, and who knows, with a little self-induced luck, enjoy the process.

A path of which I am sure Mr Persig would approve.