Do You Fit Into Those Genes?

One of the great benefits of biking for practical reasons (commuting to work, running errands, doctors visits, etc) is that it gets you into shape without your having to do anything much else. There's no thinking about going to the gym, or how I'm going to stay in shape. I bike to the grocery store, haul the load home, and I've just had a workout--no fuss!
Another benefit is that life slows down. The old cliche rings true: you do notice the little things that before might have escaped attention. For example, standing at CVS to drop off a prescription. There's only so long you can stare at the assorted condoms on the rack while you wait. So I looked behind the pharmacy counter and noticed a box labeled IdentiGene---a take-at-home paternity test. Maybe this is a new product. It's prescription only, though I don't know why. I don't imagine you could abuse it, or sell it in high schools or college campuses, or get hooked on it and suffer withdrawals. But there it was, front and center. Much more interesting than the condoms. Though I suppose the condom/IdentiGene corollary is pretty much exactly inverse (1:1): know condom, no father; no condom, know father?
So I love this biking about town. How many times have I been to CVS, rushed in, rushed out. Now I've slowed down, and ironically, have more time to ponder the mysteries of the universe and the contents of the IdentiGene box.
Bikes, it has been said, are a human scale machine. They move at a pace a human can relate to: a natural pace that we, after all, control. They are human sized. They roll on smoothly. They are easy on, easy off. Kind of like a condom.