«The Rhythm of Bos en Lommer»
My wife gave birth to twins several years ago, and with a sudden lack of free time, I found myself needing to be more productive with what little time I had. I noticed that during the babies’ morning nap, between 8:30 and 10:30am, the bridge down the road from our flat draws a beautiful, hard shadow across the bike path, freezing each person cycling past during their morning ride on a kind of natural stage. I began returning whenever I could, and kept coming back for two years.
The first thing that caught my eye was the diversity of the neighbourhood. Bos en Lommer (Amsterdam) has been formed in waves, built out from the 1930’s through the 1960’s for a growing Dutch working class, reshaped in the 1970’s and 1980’s by guest workers from Morocco and Turkey, and then changed again from the 2000’s, as students became more visible, followed by artists and, later, higher-income residents. The effects of these waves of change are made visible by standing beside that one bridge for an hour each morning. Different ethnicities, ages, economic backgrounds, personal styles, and ways of being.
Some riders hurry past with purpose, others pedal slowly and attentively, while a few seem entirely absorbed, with all the time in the world. As the seasons changed over those two years, I also spotted plenty of similarities: good moods on hot days, gritted teeth as the cold sets in, families and groups of friends piling onto a single bike, and the irresistible urge to read text messages while on the go.
