On Your e-Bike: Riding Towards the Light

In a 1930 letter to his son Eduard, Albert Einstein wrote “Beim Menschen ist es wie beim Velo. Nur wenn er faehrt, kann er bequem die Balance halten”. It has since been translated in different ways. A literal translation is: “People are like bicycles. They can keep their balance only as long as they keep moving”.

This article presents a familial reflection of a period of time during the first UK lockdown in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic when the world literally stopped. A snapshot of daily life with atypical children is captured along with the journey to realisation that life is indeed like riding a bicycle.

A sample of challenges faced by autistic children when routines are disrupted are presented in the context of a pandemic, with Einstein’s 20th century bicycle simile proving that “to keep your balance you must keep moving”, albeit with a 21st century twist with the aid of an electric motor.