K: These Shoes were Made for Walking

Our primary mode of transportation since our return to China has been our bikes. We go everywhere on our bikes – school, the store, friends’ homes, our favorite restaurants. We even installed a kiddo seat on the back of N’s bike and S loves to zip around town behind daddy.

We bought our bikes more for recreation than for transportation during our first year in China when we were both teaching full-time and had very few expenses. They’re GIANT road bikes, and they’re fast, light and spiffy. We have taken good care of these bikes by parking them in guarded bike lots, making sure they’re locked, and/or carrying them upstairs to our apartment. We’ve been very grateful this year that we made that investment when we did and having had our bikes for almost four years, we’re not unaware that we’ve had a good run of it.

Yesterday my bike was stolen from the third floor landing of our stairwell. After carrying it upstairs, I neglected to lock it. I got comfortable. I felt safe. And now I’m sad. I know there are bigger injustices in this world, and as I’m reminded by everyone, both Chinese and foreign, when I tell them I “lost” my bike, this is life in China. But this “the way things are” explanation doesn’t help.

Once during college I had something stolen. Some kid smashed my driver-side window and yanked my CD player. I remember feeling sad then too. Grieved that distrust is the rule and honesty the exception; that selfishness and greed are insatiable gods. But in my reflections on human nature and my recent albeit superficial wound, I’m comforted that my most valuable treasure isn’t here where thieves steal, and that someday I will live in a land where honesty, integrity, and looking to others’ interests are the rule, where there are no exceptions to that rule.

But for now, these shoes were made for walking, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.