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Bicycle Day!
Happy Bicycle Day! April 19 brings the occasion to celebrate Dr. Albert Hofmann’s discovery of the recipe for lysergic acid diethylamide and his psychedelic bike ride home while blazing on the world’s first intentional acid trip.
Out of this discovery, there have grown essentially two schools of Psychedelia. There is the scientific orthodoxy of Harvard professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (aka Ram Das), Stanislav Grof and Thomas Roberts. And then there is the Rock’n’Roll ecstasy of Owsley Stanley, Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson and the Haight-Ashbury scene.
It seems most vital yet futile to celebrate such a historic affirmation of human potential and life itself; to keep from getting tired of all the death during this covid year. But paradox would seem a natural fit for a celebration of psychedelia. At a certain point in almost anyone’s life, if we are lucky, the chase of mortality becomes relentless and ultimately exhausting. Ideas about the cycle of life are cold comfort during a pandemic, whether from covid or not. The older we get, the faster and more furious it comes, mocking all the birds and buds of springtime.
Of course, LSD, human potential, bike stuff, and even life itself are not for the squeamish. So, the best way to celebrate is to ride a fucking bike, on acid or not. Get that oxygen into your blood stream, get that buzz in your muscles and clear…