Discussion of social change on the back of a bike-carriage

My bus got re-routed yesterday. What sort of road crisis could have caused that? you may be wondering. .

An Ohio State Football game.  In Spring. That's how crazy our fans are - they flock to the "Scarlett and Grey" game where the team divides and plays itself.  Sort of like cellular division, but they don't reproduce.  They come back together, fortified.

Anyway, I was wandering down the traffic-congested road I had to walk down to get to the place I was going - it was cold, nasty humid cold - and, for obvious reasons, I was late.  I asked a bus driver in a stopped bus if there was any way he could take me down the street to where I was going.  There was no way, he said.  Vehicles couldn't get past the bottle neck up ahead where cars were pouring (like molasses) out of the parking lots.

I kept walking.

Then, I saw him.  A man on a . . .I guess a bike carriage?  The kind which can take passengers.  So, I yelled "Can I get a ride?" He was like sure!  He stabilized it somehow as I got in so I wouldn't fall, and off we went.

We chatted.  My view was mainly of the back of his head, but he seemed very fit and good-looking.  Turns out he is a free-lance journalist and an activist, which doesn't always pay much money, so he does this to make a living.

As we got closer, I started to feel a little guilty for just sitting there while he was peddling.  He said, "Don't feel guilty!" As we discussed social change I felt the irony of being in a "carriage", carted around like a princess.

He took me straight to the door of "where I was going." It's nice when you can bypass traffic by riding on the sidewalk. After I told him more about what I do at the university, he noted that there is a disconnect with the activist community that he found somewhat surprising.  So, I pointed out that there are many disconnects which are obstructions in realizing social change, but that the one between academia and activist groups is not the only one: often activist groups are disconnected from the group/s they are advocating for.  He looked at me, smiled and nodded in agreement.