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Respect:
1 a relation or reference to a particular thing or situation
2 an act of giving particular attention
3 high or special regard, esteem

Being blind in one eye, I am not a confident driver on bicycle, scooter or car, and I envy people who do these things effortlessly. I have a vivid memory of a man riding a bicycle down the street. One hand deftly steered the bicycle through the stream of pedestrians, while the other carried a large parcel - three boxes stacked on top of each other and tied with ribbon. The casualness of his actions impressed upon me.

I’m especially taken when someone is riding on the back of someone else’s scooter, bicycle, or motorcycle - so ordinary, and yet so intimate. I find myself judging their relationship by how they are sitting. Is the passenger wrapping their arms around the waist of the driver or not? Does the passenger also have a helmet on?

Especially with bicycles, when one is transporting the other with the power of their own body, I feel a surge of respect for their capability rush through me.

Sometimes this image of two people riding together is used in clothing advertising - like the image on this shirt from a Spring 2004 Dsquared campaign, or more recently Paloma Wool’s Moto series photographed in Seoul. In these ads, articles of clothing are sensory and affective experiences, like the fragrances in fragrance ads. Consider the cheek pressed to the back of a jacket, the fabric of a shirt gripped by hands holding on tight, a blurred pattern in our memory. This evokes our real experience of clothing more accurately than a model sharply posed in glaring lights.

On the back of the shirt is the Standard Winged Nightjar. Two facts about them from Wikipedia:
“No nest is made; the two elongated and elliptical eggs are placed upon the bare ground.”
“The adult male has a bizarre and unusual wing ornament during the breeding season which consists of a broad central flight feather on each wing elongated to 38 centimeters (15 in), much longer than the bird's body. In display flight they are raised vertically like standards [i.e., war flags].”

8 Virtues: Respect

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