Respect is a cornerstone of La Vie Velominatus.
I’m struggling with how to open this conversation without sounding like what I’m assuming my grandparents did when I was growing up. Maybe it’s because I’m just now clawing my way into some of the wisdom they had, or maybe I’m just less of an idiot than I was when they were moving their lips and I wasn’t listening. (Spoiler alert: everyone is less of an idiot then I was when I was a kid. No need to wait for the memoir.)
Kids these days have no respect.
There. I said it. Let me add some stage directions to this, for clarity.
Stage left, everyone under the age of 25: [heads down, tapping at their phones] Text me. I don’t do “speaking”. [All look up, sigh in chorus, and look back at their phones. Some of the cast members roll their eyes.]
Center stage, anyone between 25 and 37: Yeah, but they’ll learn. Give them a chance to express their ideas on this world and we’ll be happy for their challenging perspective. I embrace their view as it will help us grow both as individuals and a society. Also, Mom and Dad, please text me.
Stage right, everyone else: Bugger off, you disrespectful cretins.
The past informs the future; wisdom is learned through experience and experience is earned through the errors of our actions. That sounds a lot like a rationalization for screwing up all the time and maybe that’s true, but that doesn’t mean the premise is flawed; we must look behind us to understand where we are going. By respecting our past, we may build a better future.
In a world where the young have no respect for the wisdom of age and the old have no appreciation for the genius of youth, La Vie Velominatus cuts through the din and grounds us. Cycling is deeply rooted in the past while fiercely embracing the future. The Cyclist lives happily on both sides of the coin; cherishing our steel frames and hand-made tubular tires while embracing 10 and 11 speed drive-trains and featherweight carbon frames and deep-section wheels.
Keepers Tour 2012 was the first time I’d been to the cobbles of Northern Europe. When we arrived at the mouth of the Arenberg Forest, we were compelled to climb off and pay our respects to this, the most sacred of roads in our sport. By modern measure, this is the worst road imaginable: mossy cobbles roughly strewn across a narrow lane; uneven and sometimes as far as two or three centimeters apart. This is a road so rough it is difficult to walk down. To a Cyclist, it represents the most beautiful road on Earth. This is a road that lets us touch history.
A puzzle is meant to be solved; a mystery is not. The past is a puzzle and the future a mystery. Beauty is found in the space where the past and future live as one. Cycling is beauty.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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A-Merckx to that Frank! I'm grateful for growing up on the bike in the 80's as a preteen. Learning about the bike and all the things that encompass it from my Sensei. Cycling broke down the barriers between white collar and blue collar, CEO's and apprentice's. Older guys that would fly by you in a sprint and dispense some advice to you after the race to help you beat them across the line next time. The lessons live on after 30 years, on and off the bike.
After reading this article, it reminded me of this snippet from the 90's;
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI
Anyone standing stage right?
Other than that, fantastic piece of theoretical pondering.
I saw a study that observed grumpiness to have its onset at age 64 in men, later in women.
No word on idiotness.
Great piece Frank, so freakin true on all counts.
Awesome words, Frank. Nicely written!
As for youth and the phone obsession, I've moved out of the academic world for the time being and I'm pretty thrilled. Teaching has become more an exercise in policing students and trying to keep them off their phones/looking at porn for the duration of a class or lecture. If I wanted to be a cop, I'd have been one. Teaching has really changed in a short damn period with wifi.
This was in the Harper's index last March and still has me disturbed.
Portion of the content streamed on Pornhub, the world's largest pornography website, that is viewed on mobile devices : 1/2
@Ccos
That's great news! That would give me 8 more years of careless merriment and light-hearted mirth, and after that, I can come down on all you young whippersnappers like a ton of ball bearings, and blame it on old age. Cool. *Dons checkered slippers and lights pipe in anticipation*
I'd have a hard time tracing the onset of my idiocy back to a specific date, but it's been going on for a while now. I've always known one thing though, which is that I don't know all that much, and probably never will. The older I get, the more I see that there are very few 'solid' truths in life. That cycling equals beauty is one of them, fortunately.
Nice one Frank!
We took the kids out for dinner the other night. Angus had a mate over to stay and they both spend the entire journey to the restaurant playing some game against each other on their ipads. Suffice to say they were told to leave them in the car.
Sitting down at the table I jokingly asked them if they'd be able to cope, having to actually speak to each other (and us) for the duration. Angus' mate responded, without a hint of irony
and they aren't even teens yet
@Chris
Did they take their caps off at least? (If they were wearing them) That's another thing that irks me - going into an eatery and seeing boys/men wearing goddamn caps. And while I'm ranting, it also irks me to see guys going on dates where the lady has made some effort to look attractive (wash hair, apply make-up, wear something clean and nice) while the guy rolls in wearing whatever didn't smell too bad in the laundry basket. And a fucking baseball cap.
Apparently teaching cursive in schools (here in WI anyway) isn't a "thing" anymore. Apparently, we'll all be communicating in shorthand and emoticons in the future.There will be no need for being able to "write" anymore - and if the need arises, some pitiful scrawl in capitals will apparently suffice.
Merckx have mercy on us all . . .
My hand writing might be all in caps but there's no way my kids (or any others for whom I'm responsible and feeding) are going to wear caps (or hoodies) at the table.
As for dating, that was a very, very long time ago.
@ErikdR
Puts pipe down, walks to window, hey you fuckin' kids, get off my lawn!
@Chris
Holy smokes, I didn't get that memo but I guess kids don't send memos either. Little pukes.