What is this blog?

The Unity Bike is the name my son recently gave to one of our bicycles, a circa 2009 Cannondale Road tandem. My wife and I bought this bike in the beginning of 2012 on Craigslist and were regular tandem riders when we lived in Georgia until 2016. When we moved to Baltimore we just couldn't find time to ride it, but as my son has grown he now fits the bike pretty well so he and I have been using it quite a bit.

The COVID-19 pandemic makes writers of us all, I suppose. Even before the pandemic it became apparent that things were not going so well with my parenting, and I'd begun reflecting on why and what I could differently. Recently, I was listening to an interview with Rutger Bergman about his book, Humankind--I placed a hold for this at the Enoch Pratt library and am eagerly awaiting. He mentioned a couple of things about anarchy that I hadn't really thought about much before, but resonated with me on that day. He stated two basic assumptions: (a) humans a fundamentally good and (b) power corrupts. I began to reflect a little on how this relates to my relationship with my kids. Over a couple of weeks I jotted down some ideas and worked through them a little with my wife.

A few days ago we began our initial implementation. I have discovered that the best place to introduce new ideas to my son in on our tandem rides, so out we went on a ride through some of our favorite spots around Baltimore: the Gwynns Falls Trail system, Patapsco State Park, and the Ellicot City Trolley Trail. As we were talking about our new approach to parenting, I used the bike as an example of the roles we each play and talked about how tandeming had always been a good activity for unity building in my relationship with his mom, which is when he named the bike. That seems as good a place as any to start these reflections.

My general goal is to use this space to articulate and organize my thoughts on the role tandeming has played in my relationship with my wife and both our kids as well as some meditations on our new approach to parenting. That's the goal today anyway, but I make no guarantees.

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