"Apidej is a living legend, the greatest muay Thai fighter of the century. He won seven titles. In muay Thai the better the fighter, the more humble and good the person; and you could feel the goodness, humbleness, and the happiness radiating off of Apidej. He had an infectious laugh, a deep sense of glee and the gentle manner of a life long Buddhist. And yet there was this other side, the fighting side. Apidej would show me how to move, sliding around the ring like a leopard, his eyes dark and serious, his motion effortless, his aura menacing. His eyes would go flat and cold, the naked enmity toward another man in the ring just under the surface."
"It captured the idea that life is born of struggle and striving, that true joy and understanding do not come from comfort and safety; they come from an epiphany born in exhaustion ( and not exhaustion for its own sake). Safety and comfort are mortal danger to the soul."
"You have a specific responsibility to existence, to God if you like, to taste, touch and smell what there is to experience. You have to do everything. If given an option between doing something and not doing it, you have to do it; because you've already done the "not do it" part. This can be juvenile and dangerous, I realize there are a lot of things I have chosen not to do, for a million reasons. I was raised polite. I've never hurt anyone, and I don't take needless risks. The idea is to make it through intact; "safety" is my middle name. But I feel that you owe it to the world to be curious. Somebody asked me if I was looking for something, I am looking for everything."
a nice group tonight at MR. We had daylight for much of the ride, a clear message that despite the bitter cold, spring will be here soon. We all joked that next week, we won't need our coal mining equipment anymore. Todd (el presidente) maestroed the group containing myself, Matt(run forest), Wes the conqueror, Once a week Paul, and Tom (Papa Smurf). Along the route we also saw Fort James.
The trails were frozen and solid, and rutted in some places. Ruts make me angry. Look I'm not IMBA bible beater, and I am long since past my trail spinner guilt, but Amazin' Andrew said it best, "muddy trails aren't fun to ride!" I don't care how self important you are, or how much you have to train , or maybe you figure it'll be just you and it will be okay. Look, if you leave a rut where you rode, you are a fucking idiot, and really you don't get it at all. I hope your muddy ride was terrific, because in the end, you just fuck up the trails for those of us, who do wait to ride when we should and trails are good and soild, and best of all we aren't fucking them up for anyone else. Really, it's just common courtesy, but some people just don't have any respect, and that's why we had to ride rutted trails tonight. If you rode at MR or white clay last weekend, I have one thing to say to you: Fuck you, Fuck you very much. And the reality is, you do know better, you just don't care. I also get, that if you are reading this, you likely do get it, and weren't out there last weekend. They have a sport designed to ride when it's too wet: it's called cyclocross, not lets fuck up the local trail system because I'm selfish and have to ride my mountainbike, on my trail system now. Because you own it, it's not for everyone, just you.
But I digress, the pace was a little crisp tonight, some good natured smack was tossed around, something about "his fatness" not being so fat any more, more of a chubby. I've looked and chubbymarc.com is not available. Todd (el presidente) rode a couple of truly inspired sections, that left the entire group grasping to hang on, and Todd to comment, "what happened to my group?" Every time I think this will be the year that I whoop that ass, Todd raises the bar. Well done my friend, well done.
back at the parking lot, hugs and high fives were past about. It was a good night.
respect.
fm
