What A Privilege
And what a goddamn fool
I used to return home from bike rides and answer my wife’s cheery, “how was your ride?”, with “enh, it was ok”. What utter bullshit. What dumb, corrosive, negative nonsense. Unless it’s pissing it down with rain, or if I’m actively in the process of crashing, it is always fantastic. There is literally not a single sporting activity that makes me feel more alive, and occasionally makes me forget my age and everything associated with it, than cycling.
Today was a very long day; I walked 5km before breakfast, I mowed the lawn, I did a bunch of errand running, and then tonight I rode the island loop, which is 28 hilly kilometres (17.4 miles for those tuning in on AM transistor radio). What a fucking privilege it is to be heading inexorably towards being 60 years old and to still be able to do that. I sure as shit wish that Yomi was still around and riding his bike.
I stood with my mate Dan, this week, and he told me, as he gazed out at his yard, that in spite of various health issues and other life concerns he wakes up every morning and gives a little thanks to the world he has lived and is living. He’s an old hippy, but boy did he pierce my bullshit too-cool-for-tree-hugging shell, and I love him for it.
“Enjoy every sandwich” - Warren Zevon
Hey, did you know, that if you water the garden, in the sunset light, with a hose, you can make your own rainbows? I know, right?!?!
My life is an absolute privilege, something I have clearly forgotten in recent years. If you’re not actively in the process of dying of something then all of these issues, all of these irritating “death by a thousand cuts” are trivial. Who cares if your shoulders hurt, or your dick doesn’t work properly1? Who cares if you need pills to control this, that and some of the other2? You’re alive. Who cares if the masses have gone loopy, the pols have become rabid power freaks, and the world seems big and scary? You’re alive. The sun rises, the sun sets, and you can hopefully see it from wherever you are.
If you have a roof over your head, food in your belly, some money in your pocket, and someone that loves you, who cares about the rest. If you have your marbles, your agency, if no one is actively trying to bomb, shoot, or judicially oppress you, then understand and remember that you won the damn lottery.
I realize I sound like an old man that just realized fire, hot! But you know, There We Are Then.
Yesterday I was killing some time on Rathtrevor Beach which is mind-bogglingly enormous. The beach is 2km long but that doesn’t do justice to the immensity of the area when the tide is out. From ways away I saw this interesting looking thing and walked towards it. There I met Jason, who just happens to come out to the beach every once in a while to make patterns in the sand, in this case a 9 x 9 grid. I asked, “because… art?” and he said yeah, and that he feels the energy of it sometimes. And then, with the next tide, it’s gone. What could be more pure than making ephemeral art? I was stoked to meet Jason, a man just doing his thing and enjoying it for what it is, to him, in that moment.
This is a short ride, and wasting time on the trivial is a loser’s game. You have to wake up and smell the scent, not the stank. For some of us, some fortunate few, born in the right time, in the right place, life is truly beautiful. Only a fool would forget that.
Dude, there are pills for that.
And I realize that people can’t all afford the medical assistance they need.
Couldn't agree more, my friend!
Inspirational words Martin