Keepin’ On…

I went for a ride this morning, out on the gravel again. The breeze was a little stronger than yesterday. It felt like it was coming from the northwest when I went out at sunrise to fetch the bike. I’ve been riding in the morning instead of walking lately, because my left knee’s been inflamed. An old injury from 40 years ago. It happened in a magnificent scree field, on the southeast side of Goat Mountain, in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, not too far from Glacier National Park.

I must have imagined I was imbued with super human powers that morning, as I attempted to leap across a crevasse, carrying a pair of climbing ropes. My knee made an explosive sound when I touched down and I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t super human. That’s one of the problems with getting old; all of the injuries accumulated over the course of a lifetime, come back to haunt you, with nagging pain and inflammation.

Don’t be a Jackass

Maybe it’s to remind us of what jackasses we were all those years and that we should grow up, slow down and take better care of our bodies. That was the idea with the bike ride actually – aerobic fitness. About a half hour into the ride, I was ripping down a nice long hill in a big gear. I never looked to see how fast I was going; didn’t have time really, a good guess would be the mid 20s. Then right in the middle of the track I was riding, a long, deep sandy pocket appeared. All I could do was hold tight, keep the front wheel straight, stay off the brakes and clinch up the sphincter.

There was no reason to fear really but my mind decided to anyway and went off on a thought safari, about all the ways I could get injured or even killed, riding a bike on the gravel roads. It’s not like mountain biking where you can lose control and slam into a tree. It’s not like road biking where you have to be leary of every car, because so many drivers refuse to quit playing with their phones and pay attention. In fact while having coffee this morning before I left, I read that very thing happened to the promising 17 year old phenom, Magnus White while he was training in Boulder.

I actually got hit by a car once – luckily I was going about the same speed as the car, when she hit me from behind. My rear wheel buckled and looked more like a pretzel than a wheel but I rode it out amazingly, without even falling off. It was like a crazy dream or a nightmare. She was a teenager and went all hysterical, in her little Toyota. The little Corolla, didn’t weigh much more than I did back then, it’s a good thing she wasn’t driving a truck.

Lid or no Lid

I asked her, “Why are you crying, I’m the one that just got ran over.” She just cried harder. So there I am on the side of the road, comforting the driver that just ran me down. The adrenaline was flowing and I wanted to scream at her that I could be laying there dead in the road. Instead I was talking her down, in a calm, even voice. Funny how life works out, isn’t it. I had a helmet on that day, I almost always wore one, when riding around in the big city.

Vickie and I were slow cruising one day on the bayou path without helmets and a Karen confronted us – Yelling, “Where’re your helmets you fools. Get some helmets or keep off the public thoroughfare.” I wanted to tell her where she could stick her helmet but Vickie shushed me, so I just smiled and told her to have a nice day. I have a couple helmets in the garage. They’ve been collecting dust in there for quite awhile, I don’t wear one out on the gravel.

On most mornings, I can ride for 20, 30 or even 40 miles without seeing a single vehicle. So I’m the only one that can cause an accident. I’m comfortable with those odds, so I leave the helmets hanging in the garage. Colorado doesn’t have a bicycle helmet law like many states do. All states that have helmet laws, have an age qualifier – under eighteen generally must wear a helmet.

It makes sense, since the prefrontal cortex of youngsters has not developed and they’re unable to calculate the consequences of their actions. Like attempting to jump a crevasse with 40 pounds of rope hanging off your shoulders. So once you come of age, you get to decide for yourself whether to wear a helmet or not. The most common injury when crashing a bike is a broken Clavicle also known as the collar bone.

That’s the only bone I’ve broken but it happened playing football, not riding a bike. Wearing a helmet has remained a personal choice so far in the U.S. at least for adults, and bike riders are split right down the middle on whether to wear one or not. Seat belts are a different matter but we’ll leave that one for another day.

Keep on Bloggin’

Writing the blog is sort of like taking the morning bike ride. I have a general idea of where I want to head but more often than not I just follow the breeze or my intuition and everything works out. Sometimes it leads to a wrong turn or a dead end and I have to backtrack a bit. So, let’s get back to the destination I was aiming at, before I got sidetracked on protective equipment – Fear.

Like many diseases, there is an acute flavor and a chronic flavor. One can save your life, the other can destroy it. When the wheel grabbing, sphincter clinching, soft sand trap showed up on my high speed descent, it produced acute, direct life saving fear. The same flavor of fear that was vibrating my entire being, after the little Toyota slammed into my rear wheel. Adrenaline shoots into the bloodstream within nanoseconds.

You instantly become more alert, you’re perception of time and space drastically change. Your entire system is focused on the present moment. Thoughts and actions are automatic, protecting you from danger. Once the immediate danger has passed, your body self regulates and the adrenaline levels return to normal. Chronic fear is at the other end of the spectrum and works completely opposite in the mind and body.

“Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” ~ Japanese Proverb

Fear Not

Chronic fear is mind generated and isn’t real but it fools the body into releasing low levels of adrenaline into your bloodstream that become toxic, producing sickness and disease. Aristotle defined it as “pain arising from the anticipation of evil.” It focuses your awareness on an unknown future. You believe that you need someone to rescue you from an imagined threat. This sneaking, indirect fear triggers disharmony in your mind and body, causing illness and destroying your quality of life.

Do you want to thrive in your life? The courage to say no to fear is vital. The more fearful your thinking becomes, the smaller your life will become. Find the sources of your fear, understand them, and have the courage to let them go. Turn off your TV, turn off the social media and walk away from gossip. You can reduce the effect of indirect fear in your mind and body by choosing your thoughts.

“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

Many of the false thoughts you have are directly tied to ego and arise from beliefs you have. Others are put there by news media and propaganda campaigns that deliberately attempt to seed low level chronic fear. Reality is never as dangerous as the news media present it. Look at your immediate surroundings, look at nature. There is nothing to fear in this present moment. When a sand trap appears, hold on tight, clinch up the sphincter and “Keep on Truckin.”

Life is Good – Right Now