Reigniting the Mind

I could not stop reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Everything about that book is intriguing. The way Robert Pirsig tells his story of the adventure that he takes with his son and another couple across the country on motorcycles is so invigorating. I feel like I'm riding with them, feeling the wind and the rain and the heat and the emotions of it all. It is breathtaking and, every time I had to stop reading it, I just wanted to pick it back up and find out where we were going and what he was going to say next. Pirsig is a fascinating person and, yet, he remains quite a mystery at this point in the novel. Obviously, this book is not written to tell a story about a vacation, but it is Pirsig's Chautauqua. He is talking to us in a way that will "improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and thoughts of the hearer" (Pirsig 15). He does this by sharing his views of philosophy and human nature that can be seen in himself, his son, John and Sylia. It is written with such purpose that you understand the importance of the ideas that he is bringing up and you feel the need to scrutinize and unravel all the philosophical opinions he is throwing out, but you're not pressured into believing what he is saying. I think that, by writing this book, he reignited the fuel of the mind. He wants to encourage us to start thinking about the world and not just keep living in it as we have been taught to live. He is calling us to a better life; one that is not so caught up in life itself, but in the quality of life, the care we take, and the presence that we have in our reality.