|
Bike Messenger Traversed
City, Strove to Improve the World
|
Washington Post , July 10, 2005
By Louie Estrada
In the bedroom of a condominium just south of Logan Circle in Northwest
Washington, an old racing bike lies twisted on a sofa behind a collage
of pictures propped on an easel. For many years, the bike belonged to
Nathan Osborn, who until March rode it on the city's streets, weaving
through traffic, picking up and delivering packages like a modern-day
Pony Express cowboy.
Osborn, who went by Nate, was a bike messenger with Dynamex, a
transportation services firm, which moved its local office from the
District to Arlington in January 2004. For most of the past year,
Osborn's Mondays began at 5 a.m. with an eight-mile trek to Dynamex's
warehouse in Arlington's Virginia Square neighborhood.
After helping unload the company's trucks to prepare for the day's
deliveries, he filled his own large, rugged shoulder bag with packages,
said his wife, Daphne af Jochnick. He'd check his manifest, then hit
the road again at 8 a.m., pedaling his way back to the District, where
he would spend the next six hours traveling across the city regardless
of rain, sleet or snow.
He briskly moved against the panorama of the Capitol, the monuments and
the offices of government agencies, law firms and trade associations.
In his 20 years as a bike messenger, he was in only one accident, his
wife said. He was struck by a near-sighted taxi driver and broke his
collarbone.
Otherwise, Osborn appeared as sturdy as the bikes he rode for work and
pleasure. At 5 feet 8 1/2 inches tall, he was a stocky fellow with a
square jaw and steely thighs. His long, straight brown hair was pulled
into a ponytail that swayed underneath his burgundy bike helmet.
"He loved everything about bikes: the freedom of riding, the workout,
the social interaction with people on the streets," af Jochnick said.
"He tried a regular office job once, briefly, but it wasn't for him."
A son of an agriculture economist with the U.S. Agency for
International Development, he was born in Portland, Ore., and grew up
in Springfield and Washington. He also spent time in La Paz, Bolivia,
and Mexico City. He graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School,
where he played football, in 1975 and from Alfred University, about 80
miles south of Rochester, N.Y., in 1979. He received a master's degree
in business administration from the University of South Carolina two
years later but soon discovered an interest in becoming an agent for
social change.
Over the years, his life became deeply entwined in the subculture of
bike messengers. He went to clubs to support his friends' punk rock
bands and competed against other couriers in formal and informal road
races that combined speed with orienteering skills. He also
participated in Vermont's Bread and Puppet Theater shows for political
and social awareness, along with other protests and demonstrations.
When he wrapped up his daily deliveries about 2 p.m., he would go to
the Washington office of the political and human rights organization
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, for which he served on the
executive committee.
Osborn helped with activities large and small. He organized some of the
group's demonstrations at the Indonesian Embassy, wrote and performed
scripts for its street theater and kept its corps of staff members,
volunteers and supporters well fed at its fundraising events with
homemade pizzas and baked goods. He hosted visiting East Timorese
activists, attended national meetings in California and New York and
helped formulate the group's policy to raise awareness of the push for
independence in East Timor and for human rights in Indonesia.
"Nate was always interested in helping the underdog," said Karen
Ornstein, the group's Washington coordinator. "He was involved in East
Timor when it was not a mainstream issue. He was very dedicated to
justice and human rights."
In 1999, he served as a U.N.-accredited observer of the East Timor
referendum for independence. He spent about a month in Same, a town at
the foot of Mount Kabulaki. When some of the townspeople in Same
learned this year that Osborn had cancer, they sent a hand-woven banner
stitched with a get-well message.
The banner arrived after Osborn, 48, died June 16 at a holistic health
center in Tijuana, Mexico, where he had been receiving treatment for
sarcoma, a rare cancer affecting the connective tissue. The cancer was
diagnosed in April.
Af Jochnick returned to Washington with her husband's ashes in an urn,
a wooden box with an image of Jesus emblazoned on the side. It sits on
a table in a corner of their living room, near a vase of flowers and
one of Osborn's favorite books, a worn copy of William Blake's poetry.
On the floor are baskets, one of which is filled with strips of
brightly colored paper with handwritten notes of sympathy and
reflections about a man with a wry wit and gracious hospitality. One of
them described Osborn as a man who was "concerned with humanity and
peace not social status and social climbing."
|
|
