You know how this goes. A bunch of olds get together and go on regular bike rides. Some are 90. Some are disabled. They click off 25 miles and adjourn to the bar, or have a nice salad over lunch. You don’t care and why should you.
Except that the difference between doing this and not doing this (or something like this) is the difference between life and death. It is the slow-motion equivalent to knocking the switchblade out of the murderer’s hand, to steering the runaway car away from the cliff’s edge, to clipping the right wire on the terrorist’s bomb.
OK, first it’s the difference between living a vibrant life and being the guy on the bench at the mall. (Not the guy who’s got cancer, or has a heart condition; for him, getting to the mall is awesome and life-affirming. We’re talking about the guy who has added 40 pounds, one chip at a time, and now has diabetes and a self-imposed heart condition.)
Then it’s the difference between life and death…but it still seems not very interesting.
This is the X Games hurdle: if an activity doesn’t hold the potential to be immediately lethal, if it adrenalin-jacking and utterly remarkable, then it’s not worth remarking about.
Fie on that. Maintenance matters. It might not be an art form, but it is a thing of beauty to see something cared for and nurtured and not sent to the landfill. This is true for furniture and cars and bodies. So kudos to these guys, and we intend to showcase more of this. We’ve been derelict.
Photo: This is not a photo of the people mentioned in the link above. It’s a photo of “Old Guys who get Fat in the Winter at Bike the Drive in Chicago,” via Wikimedia Commons.
