Image or Authenticity?

A couple of weeks ago I went to the International Motorcycle Show here in Seattle. I go every year as it is an opportunity to get out, see the some of the latest and greatest from the major manufacturers, and it is just fun to hang with some buddies.

Like most years, this show had displays of classic bikes which are always neat to see, lots of vendors selling all kinds of crap that I have lived without for years but now must have, and of course the plethora of outrageous bikes along with jaw-dropping prices.

A bike in latter category that gave me pause was a heavily tarted up $35,999 V-Twin Bagger, loaded with a comfort fit gel seat, fairing, backrest, grip warmers, every conceivable electronic device possible to load on a bike, a primo paint job, all topped off with a chromed skull emblem on the front of the fairing.

A bike with a chrome skull ... for $35,999? Anyone who could afford this bike probably does not live a skull lifestyle. I stood in front of that bike for a long time, thinking that a purchase such as this is about image, about the look, not the living. But goodness knows there is a great deal of image around motorcycling.

Years ago I was fed up with the ministry and was offered a job in sales with a deal of a major US motorcycle manufacturer. I was ready to dump the collar and don the chaps until the sales manager concluded his pitch to me by saying, "We don't sell motorcycles, we sell a lifestyle."

That's when some bells went off. I realized that if I was going to sell a "lifestyle" that I much preferred it to be one that comes through belief in something more than a material object that has built-in obsolescence. So the local church is my vocation and riding my avocation ... a decision I do not regret for one minute!

Recently I came across a website dedicated to thrashing all things Harley-Davidson and though the author is quite witty I thought some of his rants a bit extreme, especially as he claims that he does not care about image but just rides what he wants to ride. Which sounds good except that what he wants to ride is always a sportbike, which definitely has an image associated with it. I challenged him on this in an email and never got a response ...

But the truth is that in challenging him I was challenging myself as well. My first bike at age fifteen had nothing to do with a biker image; it was just the next step in extending my freedom. But isn't that something to do with image, with who I wanted to be?

Soon I came to love riding in and of itself; on my Long Rides five hundred mile days are minimal and it is an act of discipline for me when I am with buddies who love to stop and smell the roses. I take two or three classes each year to improve my riding skills, and although my default bike tends to be metric, I currently own a Kawi, a Triumph, and a Harley and appreciate each for what it has to offer. The only reason I don't own a sport bike is that after about five minutes of that hunched over position my middle-aged back is screaming at me ... but man, do I love the power and zip those devils possess!

So on the one hand I could claim that I don't care about image but yet ... in my heart of hearts, I know that I do care. When I was fifteen and riding my little Honda down the road and a dude on a chopped H-D gave me the upraised clenched fist in a sign of moto-brotherhood, I became part of a tribe and still have that image of unity burned in my memory. I love it when I am on the road and stop at a gas station and have some kid who is dying to get out of that one-horse town talk to me about his dreams. I love it when at that same gas stop some old guy will talk about the ride he had back in the day. I love it that my parishoners are tickled that their pastor rides a bike up the ramp to the front door of the church each day. When people ask me about my riding, I always make it clear that I commute every day, rain or shine (mostly rain in this part of the world!) and am not just a fair weather rider. And honestly, all of that is about image, at least to a degree.

So how do we differentiate between what we do for image and what is somehow authentic to our selves? I honestly don't have an answer ... perhaps it is a chicken and egg sort of question. Maybe we try on images, not unlike clothes, as we seek to determine who and what we really are. In my life I have known people who imagined themselves rebels or pioneers or laid back when in fact they were really quite traditional settlers who had little patience for that which was beyond their control! But they tried on the image for a while before becoming comfortable with who they really were, but in my opinion were often better for trying on that image (and here I am not talking about being some sort of gangster or bad ass biker, but folks who try the Nine to Five and find it does not fit, or the pseudo-Hippie who realizes he likes a regular paycheck).

I know that in my own life my struggle with image has in fact made me a better human being; the truth is that I am a pizza loving, beer drinking redneck; I grew up around a beer distributor so can be quite profane, patience is not a virtue I possess, and I still think flatulance is funny. These are not necessarily the top qualities one seeks in a pastor. But by modulating what some might call my "authentic self" with an image that is in fact important to my profession, I have become a better person. There is nothing wrong with discipline and in fact I think it may be quite neglected in our time.

So on the one hand maybe image is not all bad. Maybe image can help us extend our own boundaries, or become better people, at leat when we choose positive images. And while I have my doubts about the image of a chrome skull on a $35,999 bike, who am I to judge?