Not sure how I missed this terminology before, but I stole it from a Facebook friend who is totally into riding his motorcycle.  Wind Therapy.  Feeling that wind in your face, speeding along the road.  While I can’t identify with the motorcycle specifically – I’ve only ridden with someone else twice – I can identify with my little convertible and I remember that feeling riding my ten-speed as a kid.  There is something freeing and invigorating about riding out in the open, wind in your hair and face, without a window separating you from experiencing the sounds, sights and smells as you ride.

I am living for that first day this spring when I can take the top down on the bug and take off down the road.  As a kid, before I could drive, I can remember riding the 10 speed  down Parker’s Mill Road, a beautiful little two lane, tree lined road with horse farms on either side, peddling like crazy up the hills and doing that crazy fast coast down the hills. I could be gone for hours by myself, hearing the wind in my ears.  Probably what saved me as a kid.

I understand I grew up in a “different” time.  I suppose.  I grew up during a time when I could tell my mom I was going out, I was told not to miss dinner and I was gone.  I could ride to a friend’s house, I could ride to the library, I could ride to the airport by way of Parker’s Mill Road and watch planes take off and land while eating a plate of fries with a coke.  Can kids do that today?  I don’t know.  Parents today seem so afraid of all of the things that could happen to the child that they tend to engage them in organized sports where they can keep an eye on them instead of teaching them how to be careful when they’re by themselves.  I remember when my dad first let me go riding by myself about the age of eight.  I thought I was by myself, but the truth was he followed me in the car to make sure I was stopping at stop signs and looking both ways before crossing streets.  And he caught me a few times, NOT doing those things.  So I eventually learned how to take care of myself and by the age of nine I was riding with my friend from my neighborhood to the pool about two miles away.  I developed a sense of independence and trusted myself on this vehicle which could take me anywhere.

On top of the fact that this is great exercise, there’s something about riding in the wind, by yourself to wherever you want that is truly therapeutic.  I’m not sure our kids get that experience today and I often wonder how the lack of that affects them in school and just life in general.  I mean, I liked TV as well as any kid, but it was more fun for me to get out and do something than spend all day watching TV.  When kids today are not in their organized sports, they’re sitting in front of their screens.  Not learning how to make decisions for themselves, not learning to trouble shoot if necessary or think for themselves, by themselves.  I see the results of that in the classroom an it’s a sad, scary thing.

Just writing about this makes me impatient for the weather to break so I can get out and get some wind therapy.  I’ll wear my new “Bug” hat, put on the sunglasses, pull out of the garage and push that little button that will open the top and let the sunshine in.  And who knows, maybe I’ll get the bike out this year and try to recreate that feeling of being a kid again through a little wind therapy.  Now I just have to find some hills in Nebraska to coast down….