Great literature?

Many years ago, in an English Literature course, the teacher/professor told us that there were 3 themes in great literature: Man against man, man against nature, and man against himself (bear in mind that this was pre-inclusive language). I don't know if that is still considered the case, but I have found it helpful over the years.

Last night, on my bike ride home, I encountered all three. I'm not sure that qualifies my ride as great literature—I suspect not—but it does give it a narrative framework :)

We had freezing rain yesterday. I had to pick up some stuff after work, so I had my panniers (saddle bags) on my (new) bike. I ended up with about 14 pounds on one side and 7 on the other, so a bit unbalanced. That's not ideal in the best of situations, but with icy roads, it is even worse. Given the ice, I figured I wouldn't have much trouble with traffic. I was right, in fact, I only got passed by about 3 cars the whole way home.

So, here I am, riding along on slick, ice covered pavement with an unbalanced bicycle in the freezing rain around 6:00 PM, so it was dark. The studded snow tire in the front kept me steering well, but the rear doesn't have a studded tire (yet!) and it kept sliding out. I only actually fell about twice, but nearly fell uncountable times. It took 40 minutes to do a 20 minute trip. Man against nature, that's for sure.

Internally, I kept thinking I should just quit and either walk the bike home or call Debbie and have her come and get me. I decided against the latter because of the ice. I figured one person at risk beat two. So, man against himself; the stubbornness of going on won.

I figured that man against man was not likely to happen. There wasn't likely to be another bicyclist on the road to race against! And the traffic was non-existent; everybody else was too smart to be out :) But, I was wrong...about half way home, there is a corner where a lesser traveled road (250 South) joins a higher traffic road (Packerton). A car was traveling down 250 towards Packerton, a bit too quickly; the driver applied the brakes too hard and slid partially into the intersection. They saw me coming down the road and apparently decided it would be fun to scare me. Gunning the engine, they came towards me, fishtailing and clearly out of control. I don't think they realized how slippery the main road was. They missed me by about 2 feet. I think they were more shaken that I was, as they came to a stop, then started very slowly, watching to see that I was still upright. I suspect they won't try that again—or at least I hope they don't! Man against man...

I made it home without further incident, just going very slowly. When I got home, Debbie told me that God had grabbed her heart and had her praying for my safety. Who says God doesn't hear and answer prayer? So, is that God against evil? I don't recall that category.

Merry Christmas!