My friend Dave Hall of Agoge Fitness recently restarted his blog and made me realize how nice it is to read the thoughts of others, especially compared to the endless stream of news articles!
I’ll do my part here, too. My articles are mainly information based so this is a bit different. I will encourage anyone reading this to get your thoughts out of your head into print form sometimes. It is a great way to sort things out!
Responsibility -
“You do you and don’t worry about anyone else!”
“It is my own choice and none of your business.”
“It only affects me!”
What am I talking about? Well...it could be anything but it all stems from the same illusion. The illusion that we all exist on our own Island of Responsibility. Nobody is affected because, well, we are on the island where we do whatever we want every day. It is a great place to live. Or at least it would be if it was real. It isn’t. We are in a society together.
A quick story to illustrate this point:
Most mountain bikers wear helmets. Not all...but most. They are kind of annoying but part of the deal in a dangerous sport. There are plenty of folks who won’t wear one riding. I have seen them over the years but only talked to a couple about it out of curiosity. It is the same answer usually. “It is my own choice and doesn’t affect anyone else.” Simple.
One of these riders stands out to me. We will call him Bob as I can’t remember his actual name from 12 or so years ago. I was at Oak Mountain riding on a weekday so there weren't very many people at all out there. It was nice weather and I had a good rip going down the second half of the BUMP trail. The fast singletrack part after the sharp right hand turn with the berm near the road.
I heard some noise off to the right side of the trail. The steep downhill side. Figured it was an animal so I wanted to look.
It was Bob. He was 15-30 feet down the hill and in some level of difficulty which I didn’t realize until I went down there to get him. Now at this point I could have yelled ,”Hey bud...Island of Responsibility. Good luck.” But really? That’s a dick move to leave someone in distress. Most people, even mean ones, would have helped Bob here.
He was about my size so I dragged him up to the trail and yes, went back for the bike. This guy got tore up by this crash. Real bad. No helmet. He didn’t know his name or where he was. Glasses smashed into his face with about the expected amount of blood from such a crash...I fished his phone out, called 911, and after a couple more calls got his wife on the line.
They came and got him and I figure he came out okay. Not more than a few weeks later I got REALLY lost in Pisgah National Forest with a shitty map. A 3 hour ride turned into 11-12 hours. I had a couple hikers save me with food, water, and directions. This was, unfortunately, not the dumbest thing I did at age 20. It was also my intro to ultra endurance racing.
The hikers also could have pulled the individualism card on me. We all can. We can also make decisions like we live in isolation. But we aren’t alone. We are together in a tough world and it’s easier with company.