the peaceful peacock

Some peo­ple take stock in what ground­hogs have to say about spring’s arrival, but around here we wait for a let­ter, a post card, or a phone call.

Last week it came, inspired by whiskey and the mys­tic evening light of a New Mex­ico sunset.

I do believe it’s time to tell you about Mikey.

I know what you’re think­ing, but trust me ~ he’s not as scary as he might appear.

Mikey–or “The Slowrider” as he is known around here–is a peace lov­ing, Rolling Stones rockin’, rene­gade of life.  Home­less by choice, he trav­els around the West on bicy­cle.  And when I say the West, I mean from top to bot­tom ~ Ore­gon to Ari­zona and every­thing in between.  He does it all on his trusty Giant, tot­ing along the barest of essen­tials:  a bible, some beer money, a note­book, and what­ever he needs to get him to the next stop on his 1800 mile annual journey.

He’s an hon­est man ~ work­ing for his beer money rather than beg­ging for it, accept­ing the fate of the life he has cho­sen for him­self, and main­tain­ing the faith that peo­ple are inher­ently good.  He hopped on a train at the age of 18 (he’s 45 now) and waved a peace sign at the idea of domes­tic life.  For the last three years, he’s cho­sen the path dri­ven by his own two ped­als.  And some­times he falls over.  Gen­er­ally after tip­ping a few too many.  No need to sug­ar­coat that part of it.  But he always gets back up, picks the gravel from his elbows, and heads on down the road.  He’ll con­tinue to do so for as long as he lives.

So we have a say­ing around here:  Watch Out For the Slowrider.

Really ~ watch out.  You don’t want to hit him with your car.

The Slowrider is the sign of sea­sons for us.  Around this time of year when it’s look­ing a bit too win­tery and won­der­landy, we start rem­i­nisc­ing and won­der what kind of adven­tures he’s found since we last said fare thee well.

So it’s offi­cial:  the Great Migra­tion North is in its plan­ning stages.  With a dis­tant sound­ing phone call and a let­ter sent in Slowrider scrawl, we have been assured that Spring is on its way.  In 8 weeks.  With an ETA of May.

You can check on Mikey’s trav­els by word of mouth here and by check­ing in right here at thepeacefulpeacock.com.

michael hellman, peaceful peacock, slowrider