Vacation begins with poetry edits and religious surprises

Poem:
See exercise. Convenient, right?

Observation:
One of the most surprising moments of my life occurred when I was talking to my mom about religion. I was talking about my atheism, and she said something that caught me so off guard all I could do was let out a puff of air somewhere between a laugh and a cough. She said not believing in God was like taking the easy way out. And looking at it with some degree of separation, I can see where that idea comes from. If faith is defined as believing in something without absolute proof, it probably does seem like having faith is a challenge. According to some philosophers, the only thing that makes faith worth having at all is the fact that it is constantly challenged and returned to (Kierkegaard). So not believing would be seen as giving up the challenge, or taking the easy road. Now let me explain why I chuffed out the air I did.
I am terrified of dying. As an atheist, there is no reassurance available to me. I look at my life, realize it's going to end all too soon (yeah, I'm in my twenties; it's still too soon), and instead of thinking "Hey, things are going to be awesome in the afterlife," I get to think "Well, I guess that's going to suck." And the best part is, it's indescribable just how much it's going to suck. Because it's not like there's anything to which it can compare. It's just an end. A really depressing blackness (I guess? It's probably not blackness, since I won't exist to perceive blackness) that concludes my being. So I looked back at my mom and said "What!? I wish I believed in God. You know how much better I would feel 'knowing' this wasn't the only thing there was to being me?" I won't go into the reasons I have for my atheism. They're pretty basic, and yet so convincing I am completely confused by people with faith. But at the same time, I am envious. Oh my am I envious. To be reassured, to actually fall asleep at night, to not randomly realize in the middle of a perfectly normal activity that my life is inexorably proceeding to termination. Those are things to be envious of. So when my mom said I was taking the easy way out, I chuffed. I lost control of my breathing momentarily because I had never even considered that someone might think of it that way. Because trust me, it's not easy from where I'm sitting.

Exercise:
Pick a poem, story, or blog post that you’ve written. Go through and get rid of words and phrases that aren’t absolutely necessary. Then go through it again, reconnecting everything and rearranging the words that remain so they are compelling. See how short you’re willing to go.

Original:

Undistracted

The stillness vibrates
Soundless air too empty
To remain still.
The thunder of eyelashes
Colliding in blackness
Echoes in my empty mind
As dim lights gleam
Off metal scraps
And mentality alternates
Between throbbing foreground
And backgrounded thoughts.

My heart announces itself
In my eardrums
Steadily increasing its pace
As reality shrinks in,
Glinting metal melding into
White walls, replacing pictures
With shadowed shapes

Unbearable
Headphones convey life's soundtrack
Drowning out my mortal heart
With unsteady beats of bass
Intangibility replaces
Real walls and shining splinters
Sheltering my mind
From the void of closed eyes.

Words removed:

Undistracted

Stillness vibrates
Soundless air empty
remain still
thunder eyelashes
Colliding in blackness
echo my empty mind.
Dim lights gleam
Off metal scraps
And alternates
throbbing foreground
backgrounded thoughts.

My heart announces
my eardrums
increasing pace
As reality shrinks,
Glinting metal melding
White walls
Unbearable
Headphones life's soundtrack
Drowning my heart
With unsteady bass
Intangibility replaces
Real walls shining splinters
Sheltering my mind
From the void of closed eyes.

Revised version (trimmed more):

Empty air vibrates
soundless waves.
Thunderous eyelashes
collide in blackness.
Dim light gleams
off metal scraps.
Alternate:
throbbing foreground,
backgrounded thoughts.

Heart in eardrums
faster
as reality shrinks
to glinting metal,
white walls,
unbearable.

Headphones:
life's soundtrack
drowning my heart
in unsteady bass,
both thumping.
Walls and shining splinters
shelter my mind
from the void of closed eyes.

Me:
Now that I have finished talking about the second half of the trip I took, I suppose it's time to hit upon some of the other things we did on our vacation. And yes, this means I don't have anything better to talk about. My life is so uninteresting that I have to relive my vacation from weeks ago rather than try to come up with something worthwhile from my current mundane existence. (All I'm doing is biking, eating, sleeping, and occasionally working.) Anyway, I guess I'll go all the way back to the beginning. We left on a Friday morning to drive and begin seeing things Saturday. We had been hoping to leave Thursday night and maybe be able to see something Friday, but I had a time trial to ride (and get destroyed at by my teammate Kevin, who is crazy fast even without aero equipment), so we delayed a bit. And then Rebecca slept straight through her alarm, so we delayed a bit more (no big deal, it was just funny to surprise her in the morning with an "I'm outside, you ready?" and hear a very sleepy "Uh?" in response). So then we drove. And that's about that until we got to Denver, at which point Rebecca found mountains. Now, I've been around a lot of mountains, and I guess their effect has worn off somewhat, but Rebecca's camera made an immediate appearance. To be honest, I didn't know just how many pictures she had taken until we got back. It turns out that for every time I saw her take a picture (which was plenty), she had actually snuck in like five more. The driving was fun, though, and it was great to see her so excited.
Then we saw something unexpected: there were bikes on the side of the road. On a bike path near the road, it appeared. We saw them a couple more times, and, intrigued, we stopped in Vail just down the road and backtracked to find where they were coming from with some assistance from my iPhone. It turns out there is a trail leading up the mountain pass from Vail, and that it is incredibly easy to find from the highway. There was a parking area next to the road, so I broke out the bike I had taken along and started off (albeit with no water). Just up the road a barricade was across preventing cars from going any further. This was awesome! I had the entire road to myself, and then it turned off onto a bike path which was immediately scenic. Here is a video I took (I hope):

I made it to the top (or where I saw the bikes in the first place, perhaps not the top of the trail), and stopped to enjoy both the view and the bathrooms I found conveniently placed there. And snapped this photo:

It had taken me the better part of an hour to make my way slowly to the point I considered the top. It took about fifteen minutes to get back down. It was pretty fun coasting along, but when I did need to pedal after about ten minutes of coasting, my legs protested slightly. Apparently they had gotten too used to the good life and thought everywhere should be downhill from everywhere else. I can't say I disagree. That would be neat.
I rejoined Rebecca, who had hiked up a convenient trail while I was riding, and we resumed driving, pulling into a campground near Canyonlands National Park late that night. We set up the tent and went to sleep, ready to begin our vacation in earnest the next day.