Technique

“Technique”, such a beautiful word isn’t it? One of those words with its phoneme actually matching its definition. I put it in the same class as svelte, cajole, succinct, all words that are unpretentious and in a sense very “English”.  Technique is in fact quite a heavy and far reaching consideration – the way a task is executed- its comprises knowledge, individuality, propensities and personalities. In some cases, a lifetime is required to develop proper technique, in others, almost no time, technique is expedited by natural abilities or hindered by a scarcity of motivation.

In my host of extracurricular activities like cycling, hiking, photography etc, none has demanded the servitude to technique as much as skiing. There are few things that rival the beauty of a great skier carving a turn with skis on edge, the level control highlights commitment, intuition and an understanding of dynamic balance. Beautiful skiing is an ability that cannot be faked, you either know how to, or you’re not quite there yet. In sports like biking, you could get an aerodynamic advantage by sitting on a wheel or gain a boost in speed when you descend a mountain pass, in photography, you can click the setting to Auto and get lucky or if you shoot enough, there is a high possibility you will get a salvageable shot. Skiing however requires control under surrender, put succinctly, skiing with great technique is falling beautifully.

This bring to mind the concept of surrender, when we ski we surrender to the insurmountable, and omnipresent force – Gravity. This is reminiscent of life, we are constantly falling through the crests and trough of the mountain of life, in somethings we choose to  take the time to learn proper technique, in others, we opt to play the odds. The great bump skiers use the bumps to their advantage, both to check their speed and make turns, much easier said than done when one is not balanced on his skis. Romans 8:28 “All things work for good for them who love God, who are called according to his purpose” this is believe is the balance required in the mountain of life.

like anything, learning technique is daunting, but when mastered, produces beauty so enviable. like i said i love that word technique, now I just need to get me some.

Thanks for stopping by…

Food for Thought

Can the world accommodate everyone living in their purpose, with every step and decision intentionally propelling them towards their pre-designed destiny? Many people I know are like trains locked into tracks made of responsibilities, obligations and social expectations, unforgiving and unrelenting. We are governed by mantras like – “man must chop” and “I have a family to think of”, the system needs everyone to play their role to exist, we must go to work to earn and pay the mortgage, the bank must give loans to kids to go to college, who must in turn find a job to pay back those loans and on and on. The system needs us just like we need it.

Staring out this window at my regular 15 minutes work breakfast, I watch people file into worker, I ponder their faces. Some look like they are still trying to fully awaken while others look laden by what awaits them as they walk in the door. I see some people who look like drones, compelled to put in their 8 hours by some unseen force, living for the 48hrs between Friday and Monday. I can’t help but wonder – are all these people doing what they want to do or better yet, are they doing what they are meant to do? Is it possible for us all to do what we are meant to do?

Can the world support a mass awakening, the systems: education, financial, political, social even spiritual are all built on people sucking it up and accepting the hand dealt, what would happen if half the people in our jobs decide to quit tomorrow and follow their heart, downsize and live for contentment. I am not quite sure. Would that be a good or a bad thing? What if the farmer, accountant, doctor decides to quit and become a musician, or load up a backpack and through hike the Appalachian trail? As much as I want this for everyone, I wonder how this would play out. In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam work to do, I assume he liked doing it, it was what he was meant to do. The woes of living in a fallen world.

As usual I have more questions than answers. I just am moved by our collective level of compromise, overwhelmed by the courage and vulnerability required to unshackle oneself and take the leap, intimately aware of the possibility of failure which if the other face of the coin on which courage lies. The saddest part is that the effort required to dream for a better tomorrow or contemplate decisions in the past that has lead us to our today, actually ends up robbing us of today. I guess all we can and should do is keep fighting, keep dreaming but all the while not forgetting to keep leaving because as of today, TODAY is all we have.

I do need to get some pictures, I know posts without pictures to lighten up the melancholy sometimes end up sounding depressing

 

Talent or Tenure?

Today whilst digesting the quote “we must build the defense of peace in the minds of men…We are living in a culture of war let us build a culture of peace” by Federico Zaragoza  former Director-General of UNESCO from the book Wisdom, Andrew Zuckerman. I started to wonder the great cost demanded for peace, the price revolutionists and martyrs like Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Che Guevara, MLK had to pay to the merchants or oppression and war for peace and I wonder if I had the courage to cast my lot and stand against all odds for a cause.
Do we all have the capacity to withstand pain both physically and mentally till we attain our desired goal? Is it a predisposition apportioned to some but withheld from most or a skill that is guilt like a muscle and grows larger with every concurrent stroke of conviction… Is it like Talent?

Where does raw talent start? could it be pointed to as being that guy having never before ridden a bike can jump on and hang with the Cat 2 racer or is that novice who can struggle through the pain and hang with the A group on a tempo club ride which ends with pats on the back for him and statements like “keep riding, by this time next year you will be a beast”? When it comes down to it, do we really all know what we are capable of? I had been riding for about 2 years when in conversation with another rider I complained about my inability to get a high suffer score on Strava, I feel like I’m pushing to the limit and I am confident when I upload my data my suffer score would be Epic, alas it is always less than desired. He asked me if I had ever puked at the top of a climb to which I answered no, he said you still have a lot of suffering you have not touched yet and he was right, with the us of a heart rate monitor I am now all too aware of my body’s aversion to pain which is the antithetic for what serious bicycling represents.

I think about Alberto Contador on the day he withdrew from the Tour de France, the guy had a broken leg and still pedaled for a couple miles before succumbing to the pain and doing so in the most undramatized fashion, I would have been crying asking for my mummy, or Andrew Talansky as he valiantly finished stage 11 after so many crashes and I wonder what it takes for one to push pass all the fail safes the body has set up to circumnavigate discomfort, what it takes to sit in the pain cave boiling in lactic acid…. Can we accept the fact that we might lack the mental fortitude to suffer be it in real life or on a bike. I don’t have the answers to these barrage of questions but I think we need to be able to identify where our strengths lie and our thresholds top out, this way we are able to safely bite what we can chew. Personally I pray my threshold for pain experience in support of my spiritual convictions are much higher than my threshold for trivial peril. I guess when it comes down to it I really hope God helps me grow in my conviction that physical pain is no longer a deterrent to standing firm and pushing on.