This photo was taken in March 2019, the day I divorced my Italian mistress. She was beautiful, intense, and I gave her so much love that I was being consumed inside out.
Yes, my Ducati Monster 1200S motorcycle was a jealous lover and this exotic machine demanded all my time and attention for five years.
I showered her with the jewels only a queen deserves – carbon fiber wheels forged in the heart of South Africa (I’m not kidding, they really were), customized water-cooling tubes, CNC aluminum fittings and a throaty exhaust pipe that was barely legal.
I spent hours washing her and protecting her from the harsh sun. I paid through the nose for her maintenance. I would wake up in the pre-dawn hours every Saturday and Sunday so she could get some exercise, hurtling through the streets at an unmentionable acceleration rate.
But over time, I grew uneasy. She had become an idol, a false goddess. She was taking up too much of my mental bandwidth. And while I had declared to live by God’s commandments, she was the very contradiction of my faith – a shiny object of materialism that took time away from my family, my faith and my work.
And time is utterly precious. The time we give to our possessions and to consuming entertainment is time that we could have spent creating something new. My mind had become filled with too much motorcycle stuff, and not enough of the varied subject content I love to explore.
Most of my biker friends never really understood why I sold the Ducati and walked away from motorcycling.
But that was the period in my life that I was casting off many possessions and habits that were weighing me down (thanks to Marie Kondo’s teachings). The Ducati was the last but most symbolic thing to let go of.
I was only a little sad to see her new owner ride her away. I felt a great sense of relief that this torrid affair was finally over, and now I had gained back something more precious – my time to create.