Every step was measured, thought about and calculated. Screwing up, failing, falling might not be fatal here.
Getting back up and moving on would be a fraught process
I wasn’t in the mood to test my mettle any further.
I was bonked out over an hour ago. At this point, I wanted to avoid the highway.
I wanted to avoid the discomfort of traffic.
I wanted to and was avoiding what I thought was dangerous.
As it happened, my choices put me directly in front of the experience I was avoiding.
Each tie was wet. They were slippery. Some were rotten. Everything was uneven. My breath got shallow and quick.
Ahhhhhhh - there it is! Sweet sweet adrenelaine.
All it took was an abandoned train trestle.
I was sixty feet up.
As I stepped out further, my mind raced.
What if I fall? What if something gets hung up? What if… HOLY SHIT! I’m way further above the…
ZEKE! I shouted, THIS IS SOME SKETCH SHIT!
Zeke chuckled - You haven’t even gotten to the worst of it yet.
You mean the missing ties? I had an idea of what that looked like. I was hardening my nerves to endure the discomfort of being up so high and exposed.
I could see what looked like a shelter below. The sound of the rushing river indicated a quick drop in elevation of the ground below us.
I was in a terrible place. With each step forward, I moved closer to an unknown that the hardy and brave Zeke described as much worse.
I giggled and perhaps sang a song. I can’t remember if I sang out loud or to myself. Ether way, on I went to the tune of ‘one foot, in front of the other…’
Riding unsanctioned sketchy shit is frowned upon by those who occupy the volunteer positions within the cycling community.
They’re typically people who understand or at least think about such frivolities as lawyers, insurance companies and liability.
Parasites really.
They have meetings and talk a big talk about inclusivity.
They don’t like to include one thing though - The male desire to seek thrills and take risks.
Yep.
That’s another one of the so called toxic masculinity traits as described by the American Psychological Association.
Apparently this risk taking behaviour that lights me up so much is problematic and toxic.
You know what’s really really toxic for society?
Type two diabetes that comes from having too sedentary of a lifestyle.
With that in mind, those who are perpetually afraid and living with the traces of our parasitic culture of litigiousness governing their behaviour have far too much swing these days.
They always have wanted to, but now the nanny state safety cowards are everywhere. It’s summer in Nova Scotia You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some gorpon smouldering under the weight of plastic high vis clothes.
I’m sick of their intolerance
Safety culture is intolerant to risk.
Safety culture is intolerant of thrill seeking.
I’m intolerant of safety culture.
Covid masks?
Fuck them. Never again.
Bicycle helmets?
When I determine they are necessary.
Closed down train bridges or leaping off bridges into lakes despite the the ‘no jumping from bridge’ signs?
They are there to be explored and played on.
It seems as a society we have a polarized relationship with thrill seeking.
On one hand we have the extreme sports athletes throwing themselves from airplanes or leaping from rooftop to rooftop with forty cameras capturing every moment. It’s as though if they didn’t record it, nothing happened.
On the other side are the safety freaks. They’re ready to create new rules to protect property and people from ‘liability’. They don’t ride bikes but create bike lanes so that people who don’t ride bikes can ‘feel safe’ on the roads.1 They make helmet laws that are both ineffective and largely racist.2
Then, there are the rest of us, sitting there annoyed by barriers erected to ‘protect children’ from becoming Darwin Award winners. With the extreme athletes setting bars so high we sit on the sidelines watching, wishing, yearning to take a big risk, walk a tight wire and put our lives on the line.
I finally reached the other side of the bridge. Once there, getting off was worse than the crossing. I was shaking, nearly ready to vomit.
It was glorious.
I never feel more alive, more happy, more mentally well than when I’m in a situation of extreme danger.
The juice of relief is worth the squeeze of panic.
The next time you find that you need to watch every step lest you either fall to your death or offend someone, keep going. Notice the thrill. Plan your steps as needed.
And,
If you slip while taking a physical risk, that really sucks. You could die.
And if you need to watch every step you take in your relationships?
Go ride your bike as far away from the people that you’re with as fast you can.
Good, laid back people exist.
We’re out in the forest, freed from the conceits of civilized living.
We’re taking big risks and loving every minute of it.
When you feel safe, you’re likely not safe on the roads. We’re making bike lanes for people who don’t ride and not optimizing the riding for people who do.
more petty laws like bike helmet laws are disproportionally used as an excuse to stop and harass those with more limited financial means. Helmet laws exist to give cops an excuse to hassel poor people who are frequently POC. The same people who love to scream and yell about ‘defunding the police’ are the first to scold you for setting a poor example for their children by not wearing a helmet. Before these stanky minges open their mouths about helmets, they ought to invest in a muzzle to prevent their big nosey noses from being punched and their lips from growing fat due to direct, immediate fist contact.
Yew! More problematic toxic masculinity!
Quick! Someone call HR!
Thank you in advance for your future organ donations.
I presume some of your ilk are the yahoos racing crotch rockets on the expressway near me at speeds exceeding 200kph. Helmet or not, the brains have no redeemable value, but the kidneys are appreciated.