Unicycles and Wheelchairs

There is a suprising connection between unicycles and wheelchairs. In both cases, you wheel yourself around the city sidewalks at a different height than most adults. You have to learn to navigate around certain obstacles, especially other people. You travel at a different speed than most walkers, usually faster. Wheelchair-riders, however, are almost never jeered. This is one way that unicycling is different. Imagine if everywhere you went, people pointed to you, made comments to you (or about you), or started singing a song associated with what you were doing (is there one about wheelchairs? I hope not!). Even worse, what if most people pretended you weren't there. Well, that's one way in which unicycling and wheelchairing are the same.

In many ways, riding a unicycle is the flip-side to riding a wheelchair. It's the healthy version, the one that is made by choice rather than by unfortunate circumstances -- only a weirdo would want to ride all around in a wheelchair, even for a day; presumably, only a weirdo would choose to ride a unicycle everyday. Every time I ride thru city Manhattan, I am the recipient of pointing, commenting, laughing, singing, invisibility.

Like wheelchairs, unicycles represent a different method of locomotion. On city streets and sidewalks, wheelchairs are fairly uncommon; unicycles are downright rare. In large part due to this rarity, people often act like I'm the setup man to a joke that no one's ever thought up before: "Where's your other wheel?" I have been riding for more than 25 of the past 27 years, and I'd have to guess that I've heard that question about once a day. If so, then that's over 9,000 times. Even if I've only heard it twice a week, that's still over two thousand times. People try so hard to be original. It kind of reminds me of the statistic that in 2004, over 200 kids were given the name Unique. What's funny to me about the people who make the "other wheel" comment is that their friends always pat them on the back and laugh, suggesting that they are even less creative than their witty pals.