tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post5239384993547874533..comments2024-03-27T05:14:23.738-04:00Comments on Lovely Bicycle!: Passion and MediocrityVelouriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-54882142861307229632012-12-20T23:08:21.960-05:002012-12-20T23:08:21.960-05:00Leonard Cohen was in a country music band as a you...Leonard Cohen was in a country music band as a youth, so he was a singer and musician before he became a poet. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-90512426797404234052012-03-01T17:25:11.856-05:002012-03-01T17:25:11.856-05:00This has got to be the most profound post you have...This has got to be the most profound post you have ever written and that I have ever read.<br /><br />One thing even more painful that you do not mention is not knowing whether you have been good at something because you never had a chance to try or could not afford it, while being intimately conviced yo would have been good at it. I passed on the chance to study piano as a kid (paid by my parents), and now I cannot afford it simply because I cannot afford the piano. That's something I am intimately convinced I would have been decent at. That's the worst of scenarios.<br /><br />Yet I intimately feel what you are saying. I don't care about the cycling part as cycling for me is on the same level as taking the bus, no more.<br />I took on skating as an adult a few year ago upon coming to Canada. Oh boy, lemme tell you I quickly read my level of maximum competency i.e. lifting one leg and skating backwards. After two more years of skating classes, I still shit myself liquid when attempting to cross the skates. I know I'll never be Johnny weir, but I did enjoy the experience and the learning was fun and not a chore at all.<br /><br />That's my attitude now. I try some, if I am good at it then great, if not, I enjoy the moment and view it as an enhancement of my culture. No bitter feelings.Montrealizehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08689176985812848399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-70374719265188583532012-02-08T16:54:40.724-05:002012-02-08T16:54:40.724-05:00Thanks for the article. I'm with you. I'...Thanks for the article. I'm with you. I've been toying with a classical guitar off and on for a few years now and I have no talent whatsoever. As for bicycling, I've always been better at fixing them than riding them although through sheer perseverance over many years I'm getting a lot better at climbing. Still slow as molasses though...Mattnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-81301309409345414212012-02-08T10:41:50.784-05:002012-02-08T10:41:50.784-05:00Skating would be a good cross-training activity fo...Skating would be a good cross-training activity for your bicycling for doing in the winter. <br /><br />What you need to work on to improve your ability to skate and also to vastly improve your bike handling skills is core strength. Yoga and pilates are great forms of exercise for this. I recommend you get into them as they would help you greatly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-65377122773035650882012-02-08T01:07:47.920-05:002012-02-08T01:07:47.920-05:00Skating:Velouria::Ballet:Prima Cyclorina
I comple...Skating:Velouria::Ballet:Prima Cyclorina<br /><br />I completely know where you're coming from. I started taking Ballet classes only as an adult, and it has been both a challenging and rewarding experience. If I could be mediocre at Ballet, I would be thrilled. What I have learned is that there is always room for improvement.Prima Cyclorinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13764405684710767419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-53246162124719731142012-02-07T15:09:20.825-05:002012-02-07T15:09:20.825-05:00I think there is something to be said for pursuing...I think there is something to be said for pursuing activities one will never be good at. If you really enjoy it your standard of performance compared to experts should not matter much. You may not want to expose your "skills" to others but there is no reason you should not enjoy a hobby (other than brain surgery) for which you have no particular gift whatsoever. <br /><br />Cycling has rewards for everyone at every level. At the most basic you can enjoy the undeniable pleasures of being outdoors, and you can push your self incrementally - unlike bungee jumping, for instance! My first summer with clipless pedals I fell over at least once every single time I got on the bike. I'm known among my friends for spectacular crashes, but I still love to ride.Cinderellenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08944325468803416106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-5275087989623376392012-02-07T13:08:15.887-05:002012-02-07T13:08:15.887-05:00I spent two or three months learning that Chopin p...I spent two or three months learning that Chopin prelude. Technically, it's not so hard. But yes, it was a long time before my piano teacher was sufficiently satisfied with my understanding of it and performance to have me move on to something else. And I'm not sure he was ever truly satisfied.<br /><br />You might be interested in <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-success/201101/the-trouble-bright-girls" rel="nofollow">this article</a>, which suggests that the problem may affect different genders in different ways. I am struggling to learn and understand calculus (25 years after I last encountered any sort of higher math), and right now my failures are making it very difficult to sustain my passion in it. I am, fortunately, blessed with a very supportive and encouraging spouse who 1) believes that anyone can learn calculus, and 2) loves to hear me play, even when I play badly--love is often said to be blind, but did you also know that it is deaf, as well?<br /><br />It is blogs like yours for which I am profoundly grateful, as I love bicycles and bicycling, but apparently am not and could never be a Serious Bicyclist, with the ridiculous monkey suit and mothership-shaped headgear and featherweight titanium racing bike who goes out every weekend and tries to beat the previous weekend's century time.X. virginicahttp://www.thesolitarybee.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-46899253017794692432012-02-07T11:44:17.930-05:002012-02-07T11:44:17.930-05:00With all your recent skating posts, Velouria, I th...With all your recent skating posts, Velouria, I thought you and your readers may find this interesting. <br />http://chiccyclist.blogspot.com/2012/02/cycle-skating-in-paris-1923.html<br />(I think Charlotte of Chic Cyclist was, until recently, from Boston.)SGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651268335656212857noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-16873157448112695462012-02-07T04:09:28.025-05:002012-02-07T04:09:28.025-05:00The difference between childhood and adulthood, it...The difference between childhood and adulthood, it seems to me, is that between overcoming disillusionment and overcoming disappointment. <br /><br />As a nine year old child one could be in the 95% percentile in tennis, baseball, piano, or whatever. This makes you really good at these activities, probably better than just about all of your peers with whom you interact. Understandably, these will become a crucial part of your sense of self and a child could be forgiven for thinking she has found her life’s pursuit. It is a difficult and bitter lesson to accept that for all of this you are never making it to Wimbledon, the Majors, or Carnegie Hall -- not even close. Accepting your limitations here (call it mediocrity) is about figuring out how to find one’s real calling in life, while somehow carrying that passion and enthusiasm for the things you excelled at in childhood into adulthood. This is aggravated by the fact that there is inevitably a period where the activity gets dropped. We go to college or travel or start new jobs as young adults and leave behind the stuff we were good at. Returning later is doubly hard. You are out of practice and perhaps have newfound physical limitations, meaning you have to accept that you were better at something at 15 than at 30 -- and you have to relive that old pain of giving up the lost dream that defined your sense of self as a child. It seems to me a lot of people fail to pull this off. We probably all know somebody who has just totally dropped something they were pretty good at as a kid. It is baffling to the outsider who has no skill in the activity, who is left to wonder why the person, for example, doesn’t just sit down at the piano and play a bit given that the skill level is 100 times that of the person who wishes desperately she’d been given lessons as a child. But it is understandable why a person would have no interest in playing at that level, given the history.<br /><br />Adulthood looks completely different to me. Here one faces the prospect, challenge, and reward of overcoming a lifelong disappointment. For many people this happens with respect to seemingly simply activities, where our parents forgot or failed to grant us those little blessings of muscle memory which are so easily received when you are five or six, and so painfully earned many years later: swimming, riding a bike, skating, etc. Working with limitations (call it mediocrity) has a totally different cast here. I had a lifelong fear of water, based on a horrible experience as a 3 year old when I was pulled by a nursery school teacher across a pool deck, screaming, clutching onto a chaise lounge -- thrown into water over my head. I spent nearly four decades with this hanging over me. Last year I turned 40 and decided I had had enough. I wanted to be able to swim with my children. I found a coach and tried to learn to swim (for about the 6th time in my life). I approached it with a “now or never” attitude and finally succeeded. Objectively, I am still a horrible swimmer. When I swim front crawl I get passed by 70 year olds in the next lane doing breaststroke. But I can swim 1000m without a break, which is pretty amazing for somebody who last year had panic attacks upon smelling chlorine and couldn’t manage more than about 2-3 strokes before desperately trying to find solid ground to stand on. Achieving my current state of mediocrity at swimming is one of my most satisfying accomplishments of recent memory. This is the beauty of middle age. Minimum proficiency in something completely new does bring amazing rewards. And so, I have my current list of modest goals which define the 40 year old sense of self: acquiring minimal proficiency in German (overcoming lifelong disappointment of being essentially monolingual); learn to ice skate (inspired by watching my children glide across the Kleinhesseloher See in the Englischer Garden, Munich), and riding a full century - hopefully with more grace than the metric century last summer!<br /><br />MKAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-77076459336531689792012-02-07T02:10:47.941-05:002012-02-07T02:10:47.941-05:00I think it's age. The older I get, the less I ...I think it's age. The older I get, the less I give a flying rat's butt (as my mom used to say) about whether or not I'm "good" at something. My Beloved Man is very good at many things, but is also very stiff and awkward at times. He absolutely does not care. He lives without embarrassment. I try to follow his lead, and do what I enjoy without restraint.ridebloghttp://rideblog.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-56828813027837731932012-02-06T16:55:45.783-05:002012-02-06T16:55:45.783-05:00"All my favorite singers couldn't sing,&q..."All my favorite singers couldn't sing," <br />-Dave Berman (of the Silver Jews), "Blue Arrangements."ghostofjenhillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08242807929840703634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-44001446212486755172012-02-06T15:03:50.231-05:002012-02-06T15:03:50.231-05:00I am not American-born, and have spent my childhoo...I am not American-born, and have spent my childhood in multiple countries. My own impression has been that, if anything, the US had more "just for fun, no pressure" types of opportunities for kids and teenagers than European countries (at least when I was growing up). And it wasn't about "achieving the level of 'paid professional'," but about an attitude of seriousness and dedication vs fun-fun-fun. Nowadays I have no idea what it is like; children are treated differently across the continents than when I was growing up.Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-85313367881142403562012-02-06T14:53:55.663-05:002012-02-06T14:53:55.663-05:00Is this a particularly American trait? The fear of...Is this a particularly American trait? The fear of engaging activities in which we are not "very good"? Probably not. But at least with music I have seen that many other cultures don't have the same expectation that one must be on some pro or near-pro level in order to justify engaging in an activity.<br /><br />I think it is a real loss. The joys of being an "amateur" in every sense are really underestimated. And I also think a lot is lost when we only pursue activities where there is an assumption that we will be able to achieve some fairly high level as a price of entry. <br /><br />It is perhaps one of the few joys of getting older that we don't worry so much about other's judgments of us. But I think it is a mistake we make with kids a lot too that we guide then only toward activities in which they have some potential to achieve the level of "paid professional" as if that is the ultimate judge of the worth or benefit to pursuing something.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-90381792464243162722012-02-06T14:14:30.486-05:002012-02-06T14:14:30.486-05:00Aside from the reviews on the blog, which are exce...Aside from the reviews on the blog, which are exceptionally well done, I wondered why I kept reading for a while. Then I realized that the narrative of this blog isn't about bikes, but about slowly finding out that you're good at something. Whether because of effort, passion, talent, or whatever, it makes a compelling story.Noelhttp://noel.weichbrodt.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-79123451976347785802012-02-06T12:40:29.610-05:002012-02-06T12:40:29.610-05:00Yes, it's complicated. I guess you could say t...Yes, it's complicated. I guess you could say that I am not actually good at chess. But I can (or rather, could - this was a long time ago) play it in a similar way as people play poker, which allowed me to win without being brilliant at the game itself.Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-60521516376166891122012-02-06T12:26:42.870-05:002012-02-06T12:26:42.870-05:00How curious that you are good at chess, but not ma...How curious that you are good at chess, but not math or music theory. Those are kind of related.<br /><br />MattAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-70844600667374123122012-02-06T11:08:16.250-05:002012-02-06T11:08:16.250-05:00From roughly the same period I like Liszt, Grieg, ...From roughly the same period I like Liszt, Grieg, Brahms, Tschaikovsky, Ravel, Mahler, Satie... I am sure I am missing some. Otherwise I like Baroque stuff, especially Bach, Handel and Vivaldi. Beethoven too, which I guess is the in-between period.Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-28354384596780298792012-02-06T10:49:50.521-05:002012-02-06T10:49:50.521-05:00Did not know you were into classical music! What o...Did not know you were into classical music! What other composers do you like?Anna Onoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-53011551882610262932012-02-06T10:45:48.919-05:002012-02-06T10:45:48.919-05:00If you like Chopin's prelude in E-minor you ma...If you like Chopin's prelude in E-minor you may want to listen to Antonio Carlos Jobim's song: Insensatez.Jazzboyhttp://bicycle.webnode.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-7551606544860234092012-02-06T10:11:54.628-05:002012-02-06T10:11:54.628-05:00When I was a student in England in the early-mid 2...When I was a student in England in the early-mid 2000s there was fantastic amateur theater where I lived, so many groups that you could go out to see a different play every day of the week if you liked. I preferred this to both professional theater and to movies, it just felt more real.Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-67556859012332981602012-02-06T10:03:54.399-05:002012-02-06T10:03:54.399-05:00Oh no, just listening to the music. I have not see...Oh no, just listening to the music. I have not seen the film actually, might make for good on-the-trainer watching!Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-18915567605364583292012-02-06T09:43:06.701-05:002012-02-06T09:43:06.701-05:00Did your infatuation with Chopin begin with the fi...Did your infatuation with Chopin begin with the film Impromptu, by any chance? When I was a 90's theatre girl we used to entertain ourselves reenacting our favorite scenes.kiwigemnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-58886388541743702512012-02-06T09:40:32.418-05:002012-02-06T09:40:32.418-05:00Well, he really can't, but I'd listen to h...Well, he really can't, but I'd listen to his not-singing singing all day long. : ) He's the best.kiwigemnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-46069196670906538222012-02-06T09:19:19.188-05:002012-02-06T09:19:19.188-05:00He "was born with the gift of a golden voice&...He "was born with the gift of a golden voice" after all!cyclerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10331461189944538729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-64420340475126943442012-02-06T04:06:45.831-05:002012-02-06T04:06:45.831-05:00wonerful post. any reflexions on masking skill wit...wonerful post. any reflexions on masking skill with emotion in painting? - in the role of a recepient of art for me it is always emotion i am after. also in the performing arts. i usualy prefer a school play to professional theater - or to be precise: i prefer the moved and moving amateur to 97% of all professional theater...jensnoreply@blogger.com