The Unhelpful Remembance of Selves Past. We always say, “Comparison is the theft of joy.” Actually, apparently, Teddy Roosevelt said it first. He also famously once said, “Who farted? Was it you?” but that’s neither here nor there. The thing is, the person we compare ourselves most often and most unhelpfully is our past self, who was, honestly, physically more capable than we are, but also sorta stupid. Probably the best thing we can do is forget that person existed.
Music Picks:
Robot – Hoick – S/T
Stevil – ’68 – They Are Survived
Podcast (revolting): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:31 — 98.2MB)
Just a thought…now that you both seem to have ‘evolved’ (for lack of a better word) to enjoy the quieter, more inwardly focussed aspects of life, bike and what not else, was it ever REALLY necessary to have first proved ones mettle in the eyes of the world around us?
Was the wrong clothes, drunk from yesterday, ass handing a requisite stop on the road to enlightenment?
To be surrounded by total honches, gnar-lords and absolute naturals as if they/we still can’t help but succumb to an utterly conventional, competitive drive to be ‘better than’, as if it somehow confers upon one lifelong virtue, and a savage blow to the rules of a world against which we rage.
To say that ‘one has nothing left to prove’ suggests a universal human expectation, only when met can one be free.
The reality is that a person never has anything to prove, beyond what we might voluntarily take upon ourselves.
Can one enjoy a downhill ride to the pond, or figure 8’s in the sand without first aligning ourselves with greatness?
Pineapple Bob is legendary more for who he is than what he did, a fucking fixture in the East Bay scene, each PB sighting treated like a veritable unicorn.
It doesn’t take anything away from his prowess on a bike, but he’ll still be PB long after he ever hangs up his bike.
Same goes the Mountain Larrys and Jungle Johns, the pissed on shoes and the burying of food, that’s what made the sub-culture cool and interesting.
In the end we can’t escape that every sub/alt/counter culture exists as a response to culture in general, and in which we still aspire to greatness through what is a pretty limited criteria.
Life is weird.
East Bay question…who is that one armed MTB’r?
I think when we’re young, we’re usually quite dumb. Also, when we’re older.
All the while thinking we know things.