If you're sick - GET SICK!
Today was the first time I've been on my bicycle all week, so mostly it has been a case of me looking at my bicycle whilst popping pills and basically probing the hellish coasts of Country Fever. It's an incredibly sickly scenario: to be burning up on the inside, so much so that one's eyes feel dry, whereas the littlest movement feels like one is walking through an ice cold torrent, a waterfall of microscopic pins and needles.
This has been an interesting week particularly because I haven't been able to train. As such, each singular problem at work seems like a life's work. Each mental drama seems to suck up one's whole life. It was only once on the bike today that one realises how insignificant those dramas, and how pathetic the surrounding vultures that are one's ever circling thought patterns. Once you get out and move your body (instead of merely thinking your way through), you make some space between thinking and the reality of who you really are in that reality, and the incidental thoughts that happen to be involved. I pity those people who never get to train, for their's is a life where all of what they are are their thoughts. And that's pitiful.
I am not really a proponent of the Paralympics. You see, someone with no legs and only one arm is at a really big disadvantage to someone with say two legs, or two arms. But I have seen some athletic performances that took my breath away. One was a Chinese swimmer with one arm who swam the 50 metres in under 27 seconds. I've gone around 28/29 seconds for 50 metres, obviously with two arms. This guy kicked at a phenomenal intensity, and with the propeller in place, pulled powerfully with his one arm. Amazing. I also watched a breastroker doing her thing with no arms. Also, incredible. The lesson is that we are all capable of so much, whatever we believe our limits to be. That is the bottom line though. Those limits are more in our minds than even in our bodies. All we have to do is give ourselves an opportunity to try. Imagine how the likes of Phelps could perform if he was operating from the mentality that he had one or no arms. He'd make up the deficit with extraordinary kicking.
I have taken a great deal of encouragement and motivation from the fact that Lance has come out of retirement. Lance is 6 months older than me, and his Leadville race I think had the same catalysing force as my race in Sun City recently. In addition to that I've been going through video footage which includes some clips of me when I had a bronze body with no more than 6-7% fat, and I was capable of timetrialling at speeds of 40km/h (with a heavy bike and very little aero equipment). Around 11 years ago I took part in the Cansa Lost City race and ended in a credible 2:52 for 103km. This year I did the same race 20 minutes faster in 2:32. So I am reminded what is possible, and Lance's return to form resonates with mine.
I was saying to Alex this morning, as we were wrapping up our 50+ km ride in chilly, but sunny conditions: "I believe getting myself into top condition physically is my number 1 priority in my life right now, and I've realised it ought to be the most important thing I am doing. Not work - which is something we are required to do. What do I choose to do with my free time and energy? I can't think of a more meaningful pursuit than getting oneself - body, mind and spirit - into top condition. Hard exercising is challenging yourself - it's something only you can do to, and for yourself. And the benefits are virtually limitless, because it feeds into every aspect of your life, even down to your moods, your every day expectations of yourself, and how you connect to the world."
Some people have unrealistic expectations about the Olympics, even about sport in general. They whine about Bafana Bafana's poor form, they whine about medals, they whine about how many black players are in the rugby team. Perhaps they'd also like to whine about the fact that the podium at the Olympics is elevated to three levels. At the top is a number, with '1' clearly visible. Slightly lower down, at another level, is number '2'. And at a still lower level is number '3'. I have a feeling these whiners would like the level of the podium flattened so that everyone gets an equal opportunity, and no one gets a better view from the podium than the others. It's inequitable, they whine, that one person be put higher, ahead of, another person. And if a team goes to participate, how can you not include X amount of X race? Well, allow me to offer an explanation. At school, for example, one learns for the first time that if you study hard, you get good marks. If you study very little you fail. Now maybe certain teachers gave more marks than they should have, and maybe some students cheated, and maybe some students passed when they deserved to fail. Since I taught in South African schools for a number of months, I know both are truer than our worst nightmares.
It is not difficult to imagine when large groups of cheating, undeserving students are not only not held accountable, but allowed to progress (just as other students do who deserve to), a culture is created that by bullying, by citing entitlements and other useful persecution ideologies, you can manipulate your way towards gaining a license to...well, wherever you dream of going. It's possible of course to go very far based on deceit, except of course, sooner or later, reality catches up. If you're Robert Mugabe it may be very late.
I know in South Africa we live in a society where if a man could be president, but something may deprive him of this privilege, he feels entitled to rally his supporters to kill, to eliminate opposition. Maybe that sounds fair and reasonable, even normal. Er...it's not. It's not a civilised way of doing something. It may seem that because you want something a certain way you can make threats, but in proper societies, that's not how change happens. It is difficult to condemn that sort of language to the extent that it deserves to be condemned. Any leader who uses incendiary phraseology to incite any kind of aggressive behaviour in a country as crime-infested as South Africa (and rife with violence) deserves instant imprisonment. Then, if someone else draws a cartoon of this anti-social behaviour, and Zapiro's cartoon is a bullseye in terms of capturing the sentiment that essentially politicians are bullying their way in a corrupt power scheme, and manipulating as they go along in a patently disgraceful and dishonest manner, these same goons feel they ought to be exempt from such depictions. Jonathan Shapiro calls this exceptionalism. Yes, South African politicians think themselves very special, as do elements in neighboring Zimbabwe. Oh it's all about the people, until they come to power. Then it's all about opening the pursestrings.
If Julius Malema were at the Olympics, my guess is he would bump off anyone on the podium he didn't like, until his candidate made his way to number 1. For him, that would be fair.
That's fine, but that is also the sort of behaviour that we can associate with gangsters, murderers and the mafia. I can't think of anything either more harmless or more sensible than someone like Shapiro drawing a cartoon of this thuggish behaviour, and saying: "You should be ashamed." The scariest thing is the exception these leaders take to these cartoons. I can't imagine a regime-in-waiting that will tolerate dissent in South Africa. You might think that's fine, but how is that any different from the regime of a murderous dictator, a leader who not only expects to be in power, but kills in order to remain there - and how is that any better than the Apartheid government. Fact is, it's not.
What is valuable about the cartoon palaver is that these are essentially warning messages for what is to come. In the same way that Hurricane Ike made it very clear what was on the cards for Texas (Ike hit Haiti and then Cuba days before), tens of thousands in Galveston decided to 'trust God' and wait. Some of these people died, hundreds had to be rescued. An example was an old person in a wheelchair at a dog racing course. Once the water got too high this person was virtually unable to move. The price for stupidity is human suffering, and often the consequences remain in place for long. We are being stupid on a host of issues, one of them being our failure to invest in railways whilst we continue to build and enhance our highways - the N1 just outside Bloemfontein being a prime example.
My message is this. We are getting an abundance of messages all the time. There are messages coming in about our future president. There are messages about climate change and our energy situation. There are messages about our personal circumstances, in particular our health and weight. If you are overweight and depressed, you are a representation of a sick society. How you change that sickness, is by getting sick. Throw sick amounts of effort at combating your private malaise. Like Lance, hurl huge amounts of discipline and effort at shutting down those gnawing thoughts on the bone. Let your actions speak for you, and let your message ring out to all those around you. Right now, people are starved for a new kind of message, and the only way to broadcast it, is to live it.
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