{"id":3140,"date":"2009-06-26T05:15:40","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T09:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=3140"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:54:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:54:31","slug":"an-open-letter-to-my-bike-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/06\/26\/an-open-letter-to-my-bike-thief\/","title":{"rendered":"An Open Letter to my Bike Thief"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"&quot;Dear<\/a>To my dear friend Thief:<\/p>\n

You know who you are; you stole the rear tire off my bicycle.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t hate you,
\nI fear for your welfare.<\/p>\n

You obviously have been hanging around the wrong crowd. What would possess you to steal from your fellow man? Daddy didn\u2019t give attention? Mommy didn\u2019t care? Deviancy is a learned attribute; I suppose that unlike you, I am blessed to have been raised surrounded by honourable individuals who love me.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t hate you,
\nI pity you.<\/p>\n

You feel you can have your way with the world; whatever pleases you, you shall have.\u00a0 However, you don\u2019t realise that one day your actions will come back and bite you in the crotch. And I am certain, on that day; the gods will be smiling down upon me. What goes around comes around.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t hate you,
\nI envy you.<\/p>\n

We live in a civilisation; hence, one must be civilised. Most of us are shamed into following Canadian mores, due to years of conditioning. Yet somehow, you have the power to buck these expectations put upon us. You truly live outside of society. I, myself, have tried to do the same: I\u2019ve dyed my hair purple. I\u2019ve drunk alcohol whilst underage. I\u2019ve danced on a beach for 3 days straight in Goa. I\u2019ve done some experimenting with members of the same sex. But through it all, I\u2019ve fallen back into the social straightjacket that consists of today\u2019s moral obligations. I wish I could be a vagabond like you, who sticks their middle finger in the eye of the community-at-large.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t hate you,
\nI am confused by your motives.<\/p>\n

Surely you have experienced my similar sentiments of despondency – loss, anger, and malaise \u2013 when you had your own bike wheel stolen. I assume you have been a victim of property crime; why else would you have stolen from me other than to replace what you, yourself, had lost? If it were merely to use it as a trophy, or to sell it on Craigslist\u2122, then frankly, my friend, you are another kind of evil.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t hate you,
\nI question your actions.<\/p>\n

By stealing my bike tire, you have rendered my sole mode of transportation useless. How am I to get to work and earn a living? How am I to get to the supermarket and buy food to nourrish my body? How am I to get to school and better myself? How am I to get to The Arts Caf\u00e9 in Mile End and grab a coffee with friends? On foot?<\/em> Too far. The bus?<\/em> Too infrequent. The m\u00e9tro?<\/em> Too inconvenient.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t hate you,
\nI thank you.<\/p>\n

Even if I installed a new bicycle wheel myself, I am looking at costs of at least $100. And with the time it takes in labour, I don\u2019t think this project would ever be accomplished.<\/p>\n

Thief, I thank you because had I not been faced with this transportation dilemma, I would not have thought about going to www.bixi.com<\/a>, clicking on \u00ab Abonnez-vous<\/em> \u00bb, and filling out the registration form in order to receive a bixi key 2 days later.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m mobile again and I\u2019m loving it.<\/p>\n

Rot in hell.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Love,
\n\u00c9mile Thomas.
\n\"A<\/a>
\nImage credits:<\/p>\n

MONTR\u00c9AL – \u00c9mile Thomas
\nNYC (Bike Thief Letter) – Rod Begbie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To my dear friend Thief: You know who you are; you stole the rear tire off my bicycle. I don\u2019t hate you, I fear for your welfare. You obviously have been hanging around the wrong crowd. What would possess you to steal from your fellow man? Daddy didn\u2019t give attention? Mommy didn\u2019t care? Deviancy isContinue reading “An Open Letter to my Bike Thief”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7828],"tags":[4128,4126,6,4008,3927,4125,4129,4124,830,4127,302,4123],"class_list":["post-3140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","tag-buy-food","tag-craigslist","tag-cycling","tag-emile-thomas","tag-goa","tag-rod-begbie","tag-the-arts-cafe","tag-thief","tag-transportation-2","tag-transportation-dilemma","tag-usd","tag-www-bixi-com"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn Open Letter to my Bike Thief - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/06\/26\/an-open-letter-to-my-bike-thief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Open Letter to my Bike Thief - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To my dear friend Thief: You know who you are; you stole the rear tire off my bicycle. 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