People always ask me...

"What is the deal with this 'church' thing you keep hollerin' about?"




Only sometimes they phrase it differently... Now, I'm not advocating drinking blood from fountains while wearing uncomfortable costumes, but I am real fond of suffering while wearing wool. I lik to suffer on my bike. I figure we've all got to suffer sometime in this vale of tears and maybe if we pick and choose our hour(s) of suffering it mitigates the unavoidable pain we endure in Life. It's a complicated subject (and really beyond any one answer) but Suffering is what I'm hollerin' about. There's a good article on Rapha's site [ see link at the bottom of this post, as I have yet to really know what I'm doing computerwise...] which eloquently speaks to glory and suffering on bikes.I could type about this until I'm blue in the face, or ride until my eyes bug out and not make it any clearer with words. I don't articulate so good. I am willing to bet the term " church of the sweet ride " resonates for you. What does it mean to you? That's pretty much what it is, then. Organized religion that tells you how it is really only gets it right with the Golden Rule. Anything else is wheedling money from you. Or trying to gain power over you and/or others. So, PULL THE WOOL OVER YOUR OWN EYES, and ride your bike.

What about that point in the ride at which you stop thinking? The point at which it's just Doing... no mind. That's good stuff. My friend Joe the Enigma would say a ride really gets good when that gnarled, smushed , body-heated PB&J (the one you ate part of, put away,looked at later and turned down already) starts to look not just appetizing but GRRRRREAT! He'd be right. And has been many times.


So yeah, all that and more. And afterwards, when your bartender friend who won't give you the housekeys as promised but will keep feeding you drinks as you sit there in your lycra waiting for Culture to start playing, you'll feel like this guy: And theres always this...Rapha
Of course, if you feel your life has changed because of this , and you see things in a glorious new light... then send me $30 bucks. You know, for the children.