I get asked the same question all the time by folks who don't ride motorcycles, and I'm sure you do, too. It goes a little something like I tell them I ride and have ridden for twenty years, to which they respond, "Aren't you afraid of dying?" Internally, I sigh, as it's the only thing non-riders want to know.
But in truth, yeah, I absolutely worry about it. I worry about the car and truck drivers not paying attention, or the construction company that didn't secure their truck's load correctly. I worry about all the wildlife around me darting from one side of the road to the other. And I worry about inclement weather all of a sudden becoming a monsoon, which happened to my wife and me in Hawaii.
I do worry about crashing and dying, but that's also why I pay attention to the road ahead, far more so than most car drivers will ever. It's why I talk to myself while I ride, and tell myself that I've got this, but to be aware of everything around me. And now I have a new form of self-talk to add to that repertoire as, according to science, the best form of perseverance could be telling myself, "I'm Batman!"
