La Vie Velominatus: The Choice
The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered: those who know what beauty is, and those who know what sorrow is: nobody else interests me.
– Oscar Wilde
I have a theory that every living being is designed to cope with a certain level of stress in their lives, that if our lives are somehow free of stress, we will invent new ways to meet our mind’s infinite capacity to worry about things it can’t control; I call this phenomenon the Suck Equilibrium.
The ability to cope with stress is what makes a person great; in Einstein’s case it was the stress caused by a desire to discover the Unified Theory, in other cases it might be to balance the checkbook. The driver isn’t important; that it pushes us to do more in life is what matters.
The Suck Equilibrium dictates that we adapt to the amount of stress we carry; no one is free of this burden – the hungry seek a meal, the homeless a home, the bike-less a bike, and the millionaire more millions. There is no cure, there is no remedy; no matter the level we reach, our natural inclination is to seek more from ourselves. In the end, there is only Rule #5.
The Cyclist is a unique character among the others. While the artist suffers because they must; the Cyclist suffers because they choose. To me, the greatest artist is that who choses to suffer, and who discovers the beauty in that choice. I am proud to call myself a Cyclist.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
I think a may shed a tear. well done @frank
The Cyclist chooses to suffer, simply to help achieve that great Rule #6 state…by burning the legs..we free the mind of it’s other mundane focuses..so we may then..free our legs!
Lovely.
The Suck Equilibrium then, is embodied by Rule #10
I read only the Wilde quote and you had me. Chapeau.
Very well said Frank! Always inspirational…
Thanks for the company on the HOTN Frank. The day turned out to be quite an enjoyable sufferfest. My bonking friend that day is also encouraged to know that he is still a badass for completing the ride. He’s scheduled an appointment for a tattoo of Rule #5.
Dude. Exactly.
My wife, who “rides” in that she sometime pedals a bike from one place to another place, asked me why I “get” to go out and have fun on my bike all the time. “FUN? do you think I’m out having fun?” “Every mile is suffering” I said, “If I wanted ‘fun’ I’d stay home. I ride because I must.”
Amen brother.
@scotjonscot
Me:”If I don’t feel like puking for at least a few seconds on every ride, I consider it a failure”
Her:”You’re an idiot”
she may have a point.
This actually solves some problems for me.
And causes a few others.
Insightful.
While I can not say that cycling is an easy sport, I have to admit that rather than pain or suffering when I’m under pressure I just feel a slight discomfort, fully offset by the fact that I’m on the roads doing what I love.
The perfect motivation ahead of this mornings pre work extended commute.
Why go the short way?
Charly Wegelius says something very similar in his book.
There’s a moment where he looks out of the team bus and sees a man walking home with a newspaper under his arm. The man, if he’s a cyclist, probably thinks How Fucking Cool it would be to be on that team bus, and Wegelius thinks he would give anything to swap places with him.
But he has the self-awareness to realise that it was the stress and shit which was motivating him to suffer for the last 10 years, and without that he isn’t going to cut it at the top level.
But more generally I think this is true in many areas of life. Someone said to me just last weekend that having lived in Singapore and other places abroad they had noticed that expats had an unfortunate tendency to get worked into a lather about small stuff, because they often had so little to stress about that they needed to look for other things to worry about.
Too true Frank. I may be very average as a cyclist, but often wonder why I cant just go out for ‘an easy ride’.
Beauty and sorrow. It’s all there really is. Given me something to think about and contemplate, thank you Frank.
@Pedale.Forchetta
Yes, this, but the full awareness of what others have experienced as pain and suffering, through great misfortune or disease, has spurred me to push beyond ‘slight discomfort’ to the point where only physical failure remains. How can I fail ‘them’? By quitting short of true physical failure. I had a moment like this last year, where the pain had accumulated to the point that I began to wish it over, to let that wheel pull away, but I thought of my friend Nicole, suffering chemo and bone marrow transplants, and my resolve hardened, and I thought ‘I may fail, but no fucking way am I letting that wheel go because I can quit’.
@Frank
“While artists suffer because they must;…”. How so? Even if this were true (although I’ve always considered it a bit of a cliché*), this does not seem to be what the Oscar Wilde quote is about, in my opinion. Wilde differentiates between two categories of people, viz. A) Those who appreciate beauty, i.e. artists; and B) Those who know or have known sorrow, i.e. ‘sufferers’, or the bereaved…
One could argue, of course, that Wilde didn’t account for an utterly deranged breed of people who both suffer (and embrace suffering) ánd appreciate beauty (e.g. in bicycles), but that would have been another story.My apologies. Pedantic rant over for now – 20 hill repeats this afternoon.
* The classic ‘suffering artist’ would be van Gogh, of course: he suffered (mostly rejection) throughout his life. But Picasso had a ball, by all accounts; Rembrandt was wealthy and comfortable most of the time, and Damien Hirst is still laughing all the way to the bank every single day, to the best of my knowledge.
in Ireland, anyone heard to be moaning about inconsequential shit is generally met with the wonderfully dismissive phrase….. ‘shure you’ve little to be worrying about….’
This. Nice one Franky boy.
@ErikdR
Surely Banksy get a bit cold on some of those dark nights…(cue semi colon close brackets!)
@Frank Beautifully written…
@Deakus
Yes, I suppose – but doth that a ‘sufferer’ make? (Well, it might, I guess – judging from the goings-on at the World Championships… Imagine returned smiley.winky emoticon here…)
This from the Master – “Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoy’s Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day’s work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city’s reservoir, he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty.”
@ErikdR
How so? Because artists reflect on the human condition. Buddhists believe that life is suffering. Don’t get me wrong though, it isn’t all doom and gloom, it’s the suffering that provides the contrast for us to see the joy too.
Thanks Frank, eloquently put as ever.
The bike is how I’m sure we all deal with stress. Mind you, last night my new front light blinking red for the last hour of a night time blast was another little bit of stress I didn’t need. I now know how long it’ll keep going on full power on the last dregs of the battery. Impressive. Being plunged into blackness would have unbalanced my Suck Equilibrium somewhat.
Beautifully thought through and written, Frank. My life is full of stress and occasional suffering, as is everyone’s. One of the many reasons I’m so passionate about riding is because it’s one of the few areas of suffering I can control. It’s up to me how hard, how far, how deep. It’s an affirmation that I’m alive.
@meursault
Yes, but not all artists are Buddhists, surely? For the record: I’m not in any way contesting the validity of the post. I just think that the meaning of the Oscar Wilde quote was twisted almost beyond recognition to illustrate the point – and unnecessarily, at that. In this particular quote, Oscar Wilde does not in any way associate artists with suffering – only with being able to appreciate beauty, is all I was trying to say (ineptly, perhaps)
Chapeau Frank! As a time restricted cyclist I find myself fantasising about which routes/hills I am going to attempt to crush at the weekend, always striving to ride further, harder, and of course, faster! Nothing else in my life comes close to driving me onwards like the prosepct of generous applications of V combined with the odd surprise (but strangely welcome) visit from the man with the hammer.
Jeez Fronkenschtem, I know summer is coming to an end for you, but it’s a bit early to be getting all bloody depressed. Don’t you go skiing ? You are close enough to Whistler, no need to cut your ear off over a few short glum days. Is Seattle weather that bad ? Maybe some flannel or a goodcardigan would cheer you up. Maybe a Starbucks ? Meanwhile, here in sunny Ox, it’s getting warmer and we are looking forward ro a cracking summer. No suffering here, matey !!
@frank – chapeau! “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars” K.G.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/k/khalilgibr386848.html#T7BVk4UYcfpceiwo.99
Frank. Thanx.
@ErikdR I didn’t mean to infer all artists were Buddhists, merely that what artists do and Buddhists believe are similar. Wilde’s quote is apt because it gets to the heart of the matter. That which motivates us and inspires us.
Beautiful! Just perfect.
Reminds me of two of my favorite quotes (which I will shorten):
” … who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
And also
“Show me who you run with and I will tell you who you are.”
Surround yourself with optimists and people who are interesting and that do things. If you hang out with crazy, energetic, interesting people who REALLY live, chances are you will too and if you hang out with coach potatoes, you will probably have a fat arse.
Thanks Frank, needed this reminder this morning!
“Suffering is one very long moment. We can not divide it by seasons.”
Hopefully Oscar rode a bike because if he had done so more he would have had a feast of things to say.
Nice one as always Fränk. It’s tempting to call you the Oscar Wilde of the bike world but then that would put me in a dicey ” position” , as I have spent the night with you in a hotel….
@Buck Rogers My favourite is Jerome –
“Work fascinates me, I can sit and stare at it for hours.”
Interpreted as “I’d rather be out on a bike”.
@meursault
I realized you weren’t equating all artists with Buddhists earlier – my apologies: That was just a feeble attempt at being witty. And I wholeheartedly agree with you, that Oscar Wilde’s quote could be referred to as apt – and even inspiring – as a sort of strategy for tackling life in general (although I think it does sound a tad, shall we say… exclusive?)
But I’m still not convinced at all, that the ‘suffering cyclist-artist’ that emerges from the final paragraph of the present post, is in any way related to what Wilde was on about. Having met the Man with the Hammer is a different thing from what I assume Wilde refers to when he uses the word ‘sorrow’.
And to state that “The greatest artist is that who choses to suffer” is, in my opinion, not very aptly put. I have a feeling that old Oscar would not have approved – but he was, after all, a writer and an artist.
I’m sorry: I’ll usually be among the first to applaud a piece of writing as ‘beautifully thought out and written’, as @Mike_P has put it – but only if it is actually beautifully thought out and written…
@Buck Rogers
Now thát is beautifully written…
Very nice!
I too am proud to call myself a cyclist. I’ve actually been riding less of late too, but that is good as well. I spent too much time in the recent past riding like mad, but not having enough balance or time for other parts of my life. Now I’m in balance, happy to get out a few nights a week for 1-2 hours of cross riding, then get out on the weekends for 2-3 hour road rides. The fitness ain’t there, but that’s okay; my life is better on whole and the time in the saddle is extra awesome.
Plus, I’m really digging that in cross riding it sharpens my mind. When to brake, when to shift, stay seated or rise, where to grab the TT or DT, et cetera. I like the mind-freeing aspect of solo road rides, but it is fun to really practice skills again, something I haven’t done in a few years with a sport, but grew up doing. Feel like I’m a kid again trying to master throwing or catching or feinting.
Addressing the idea of experiencing stress, or creating it when it isn’t there. I truly wonder how many people now create their own stress with “smart” technologies. Haphazard social media updates or divulgences, sexting, drunken posts or comments. Was walking the dog this morning and watched a neighbor take an inordinate amount of time to get into his car because he had to do it all one-handed. That type of “multi-tasking” just confuses the fuck out of me.
As a New Yorker I look at Anthony Weiner as a depressing sign of the times. Not once, but twice! And he’s a politician! I’ve never done that once and I’m some average nobody. I’m sure he’s a “sex addict” just like Tiger Woods. What a goddamn farce to offer that as an excuse. Talk about creating your own stress, WeinerMan.
Oh man, also have to share…I rode on Saturday morning with three Divinity School dudes. Good lord! As a former Christian that was quite the group ride. At least I’ll be in good hands should I get smacked by a car, talk about Highway to Heaven…
I do a lot of food system research for my job. Was also just thinking about self-created stress along the lines of eating agriculture-industrial food and the constant public health fears of contamination. Many people have no option but to eat these foods (though I know sweet potatoes, venison, and squirrel are cheap!) and there are continually outbreaks that send fear, and death, through the population.
Interesting as very conscientious consumers as cyclists how the American food production system is now poisoning people, animals, and the land. So much for the bucolic, pastoral farm.
I just need to post a reverence comment as thanks to @Frank for the truly wonderful Hugo Koblet photo at the top of the article. You can almost hear his tires and smell the farmland he’s passing. Just look at him. Pure class.
@strathlubnaig
Amen. I always, always go out to destroy myself. I learn the most about myself that way. When all else is dying a death my legs keep on spinning and screaming at me which always feels good in some twisted way.
No such thing as a leisurely ride. I must always go to war everytime.
It’s his goggles. I have been staring at that photo all day trying to figure out what the hell was on his forearm. Thought is was a bandage but it didn’t look right. Super photo.
@Buck Rogers Ahhh of course. I was trying to work that out too. What about what appears to be an extra pump behind the seat tube just behind his knee? Clearly you are having a Jerome day workwise then too?
@SimonH Too true. Every time I go out with two of my buddies we always ask ourselves why we try to destroy each other every time we go out. Of course we then go out and try to destroy each other. At our combined ages one day we probably will. Unfortunately I’m the oldest by a fair way. Though at the moment it’s me trashing them. Long may that last!
@Teocalli
It’s Hugo Koblet so is probably his eau de cologne.
@Teocalli
And once again – the spare pump
@Teocalli
Aha – its a gonfleur a sort of medieval CO2 canister using compressed air. They were refillable and popular until made redundant by external support with spare wheels.