My wish for 2022

I have struggled for days to find suitable words to express a New Years message during these difficult times. Then at this late hour I remembered the words to a song I write a few years ago:

I always try to help my fellow man

Hurt no one by thought word or deed.

Do to others as I would have them do to me

Is my philosophy and creed,

But there’s someone I find hard to forgive

Though Heaven knows he should be my friend

If I could only show this man some kindness

Forgive forget and try to make amends.

I resolve to show this man compassion

Lift him from his self-made Hell,

Help him if he should fall or stumble

I resolve,...to be kinder to myself.

If I could only show myself forgiveness

Show tolerance for mistakes I make.

Tell myself I’m only human,

Give myself an even break.

But I’ve always been my own worst critic

So many times, I curse the fool I see

If I could show the patience, I show others

Open up my mind and set me free.

I resolve to show myself compassion

To lift myself from this self-made Hell.

Forgive myself if I should fall or stumble

I resolve.... to be kinder too myself.

My wish for 2022 is that we can all show compassion, not only for ourselves but for each other. I give thanks that I live in a Free society, but realize I am only as free as others allow me to be. Conversely, I will allow others their own opinions, and to let them make their own free choices.

If I perceive there are consequences to the choices of others, then I will deal with it. The alternative is to spread hatred towards my fellow countryman, while still having to deal with the consequences of the pandemic. My wish is for “Peace, Love and Understanding” to come back into fashion.

May the Joy be spread to my fellow countryman, rather than the joy it must bring to my enemies to see us fight amongst each other, and in extreme cases, even kill each other.

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The importance of knowing that I don’t know everything

I read somewhere that people do not grow old, they become old when they stop growing. I think back to when I turned fifty, I hated it. I hated the way I looked, I hated my life, and really, I hated myself. I was older then than I am now.

Here I am, 35 years later, and my attitude has done a complete 180. Instead of hating my life and having to make a living, I am retired and so I do not have to “Make” anything. I simply live life, enjoy life, and in the process because my needs are less, my needs are met, I manage to comfortably get by.

I am so busy all the time, I wonder how I ever found the time to make a living anyway. I have a purpose in life, and that is essential. A reason to live, to exist, a reason to get out of bed every morning.

I work hard at keeping myself healthy, I cannot afford to get sick. I eat a simple plant-based diet, and that alone saves me money, Meat is expensive, and with the money I save by not buying it, I can afford to buy the best in organic fruits and vegetables.

My family, friends and loved ones, are my reason to live. I have grandchildren, and even great grandchildren I have yet to meet. I would like to do that one day. I have many good friends I look forward to seeing again. I measure my wealth not by money in the bank, but by those who will miss me when I am gone.

I also see this as a reason to get through this damnable pandemic, and we will. This pandemic may seem like a long haul, but as a child I remember WWII, and that lasted five years. It didn’t affect me; I was a child and at time I knew nothing else other than there was a war going on. But it passed as all things do, and possibly when this is over, we might learn something from it.

Every day I exercise my body, without my body, where will I live? I also exercise my mind, writing this is making me think, mind calisthenics if you will. That alone makes the effort worthwhile, and if I can bring a little joy into someone else’s life, entertain, inspire thought, that is an added bonus. Helping myself, while communicating with others, isn’t that what those who created this almighty mess that is the Internet and social media, intended?

It saddens me to see our country so divided, and it does not have to be that way. I have friends on both sides of the political spectrum, I love them all equally, for the way they treat me, and the way they make me feel when we are together. If they choose to post their political views on social media, it doesn’t mean I should rush to un-friend them. They are still the same person I love as a friend no matter what their views.

However, people who try to force their views on me, change me, or read into my views some political agenda, I can do without that, and I will try to distance myself from that person. There is an unwritten, unspoken agreement, I will respect your views if it does not affect me in a negative way.

I get the feeling that some people need an affiliation to this or that political/religious/conspiracy belief group in order to feel they belong to something. Maybe it satisfies some primal tribal need, and there is not necessarily harm in it unless they become victims of their own fantasies. 

I remind myself every day that in spite of the vast amount of knowledge I have gathered during my life, there is still far more that I do not know or could ever know. Therefore, I try to keep an open mind, leave room for a new way of thinking.

If I think that I know all there is to know, how can I continue to grow?

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War Without Tears

In the 1970s, just before I left England and moved to the United States, there was a TV reality show called “It’s a knockout.” Towns and cities throughout the UK would put together teams to compete against each other. The games would consist of people dressing up in silly costumes and racing each other over various obstacle courses.

It made for amusing, entertaining viewing with a competitive aspect. I believe the idea started in France, there was a European version called “Jeux sans Frontiers” which translates to “Borderless Games.” In which different countries competed. Singer/songwriter Peter Gabriel wrote a song around the theme, Games Without Frontiers, War Without Tears.”

It occurred to me that the term “War Without Tears” was a concept that could apply to all competitive sports, whether they are in the form of races with a clear individual winner, or team games played on a field or some other marked out area. People compete against each, within a set of agreed rules, and no one gets hurt. At least not intentionally.

Each sport has a governing body that agree on a set rules, and referees or some other officials make sure those rules are enforced during the game. If rules are broken, there are penalties. Just as in real life, the government sets the rules, or laws, and the police and legal system ensure that rules are enforced. If they are broken there are consequences and penalties.

Where the system breaks down, whether in a sport or real life, is when people cheat or break the rules, and the referees turn a blind eye, or show bias towards one side. The governing body then needs to step in and restore order and fairness. Level the playing field, so to speak.

When I got into cycling and cycle racing as a teenager in the early1950s, I joined a cycling club. The club itself had rules, older established members of the club taught me the rules and explained the reasons for them being in place. The rules were there to ensure fairness and everyone’s safety.

There was also something called “Ethics,” or unwritten laws. One did not draft on the back of a group for the entire race, then go to the front and win at the end. This even applied to a club run or training ride. What would be the point? You won the race, but you would be a very unpopular winner.

It was common knowledge at the time that European Professional Cyclists took Amphetamines. Amphetamines were invented in the late 1800s about the time the chain driven bicycle was invented, and with the popularity of Six-Day Races and other extreme endurance events, amphetamines were a natural fit for cycle racing and other professional sports.

However, one has to realize that professional sports are for the entertainment of the spectator, whereas the amateur version of the same sport is solely for the participant. We were only in the sport for our personal satisfaction.  Cheating in an amateur race back in the 1950s would have given zero satisfaction, and one would be ostracized if found out. I never heard of amateur cyclists doping during that era.

Today we live in a “Look at me” society, so there is a win at any cost mentality, even where there is no monetary gain. Ethics have completely gone out of the window not only in the sport of cycling, but in the “Game of life” itself. I am so glad I participated during the “Golden Age of Cycling.” It gave me such joy and satisfaction.

I am too old to ride in cycle races now, but I must of course continue to participate in the game of life. Sadly, it becomes less and less fun each day. I thought we agreed on a set of rules, but no one wants to play that way anymore.

Sometimes during English football (Soccer.) games, where poor decisions were made by a game official. The crowd would start singing, “The Referee is a Bastard.” (To the tune of "For he's a jolly good fellow.")

In recent weeks in the US we have seen riots on the streets in some places. I sometimes get the feeling it is no longer a legitimate form of protest but rather it has become a localized sport, which is why it happens over and over in the same cities. Now we have flash-mobs raiding stores, which is about nothing but personal gain.

The only referee on the streets enforcing the rules is the police, and whether the referee is a bastard or not depends which team you decide to support. In the real game of life, it is no longer “War without Tears,” the war and the tears are all too real.

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What if the automobile had come first?

What if the bicycle had never been invented in the late 1800s, would engineers come up with a similar design today?  Even if they did, I doubt it would be taken seriously as a viable form of personal transport.

The bicycle came into being at a time when the only other form of personal transport was the horse. These animals were not only expensive to buy, they needed feeding and housing. Working class people could not afford horses.

However, once the bicycle had been invented, and a few years later mass production put this new machine within reach of the poorer classes it became a revolutionary form of personal transport. Many forget that the automobile came later and eventually replaced the horse as the wealthy person’s transport of choice.

I often wonder, what if the automobile had come first? The poorer working classes would have continued living in cities where they could get to work either on foot or by rail or other form of public transport.

The bicycle had less of an impact on America’s history, because in the US it was the automobile that became affordable due to mass production, and the luxury of plenty of space led to urban sprawl, and the suburbs.

In the UK and other smaller European countries, it became viable for a working class man to live in a rural area, and cycle 5 to 10 miles to work each day. The humble bike was the working man’s wheels all the way up to the late 1950s, early 1960s. 

Even though commuting to work by bicycle is a hard sell today for the majority, think how much harder it would be if engineers were only just developing the bicycle now. Almost everyone can at least ride a bicycle, and most households have at least one bike in their garage.

Would today’s engineers even think of a two-wheeled vehicle? If there were no bicycles there would be no motorcycles, only four wheel vehicles. There had always been four wheel horse drawn vehicles, so it was inevitable once gasoline engines were invented the automobile would follow. Don’t forget the first autos were called “Horseless Carriages.”

Above: A German Draisine or Laufmaschine, circa 1820. Predecessor of the bicycle.

The bicycle’s predecessor, the Hobby Horse came on the scene in the early 1800s as a rich man’s whimsical plaything, it only needed two wheels because its rider kept his feet on the ground. No doubt it was soon discovered that its rider could lift his feet clear of the ground and remain balanced when coasting downhill. 

What has always amazed me is that it took until towards the end of the 1800s for someone to attach a simple foot crank to the front wheel and it became a bicycle.

I started out by mentioning that before the bicycle the only form of personal transport was the horse. I am sure ever since men rode horses, children pretended to ride horses astride a stick picked up from the ground.

When the wheel was invented, model horses with wheels were made as children’s toys, from this came the adult version in the 1800s. The Hobby Horse was a pretend horse, and from that came the bicycle. The bicycle evolved, rather than it was invented, it was certainly not invented by any one person. 

It is one of the simplest and most efficient machines that humankind has ever made. What I find surprising is that today almost 200 years later, engineers are still asking, “How does its rider balance, and how does it steer?” The bicycle still raises more questions than answers.

I for one doubt very much that today’s engineers, even knowing about gyroscopic precession, caster action and such, would even think of building a two-wheeled vehicle for personal transport.

Even if they did, consumer agencies would no doubt deem it too dangerous and take steps to ban its use. I am glad that the bicycle came first and then the automobile, it may not have even happened the other way round.

What do you think? Just a little food for thought for you to munch on.

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The Loneliest Whale

I recently watched “The Loneliest Whale in the World,” a documentary about a single hybrid whale that was first discovered back in the 1960s and is still alive out there somewhere in the ocean.

Apart from being an interesting and touching story, I was reminded how in the 1960s and 1970s the large Blue and Humpback whales were almost hunted to extinction. Everything changed when someone recorded the sounds they make, and people realized “They could sing.”

Originally hunted in the 1700s to provide lamp oil that fueled the Industrial Revolution, it continued into the 1960s when lamp oil was no longer required, but whale meat was still a cheap source of pet food worldwide. That is how I remember it, and even if I am wrong my point is that it was not necessary to hunt whales almost to extinction.

One commenter on the documentary stated, “When enough people care about something, they can change the world.”

I realized this is what actually happened. No one rioted or destroyed property, people the world over demonstrated peacefully. It was somewhat of a joke at first, then when Greenpeace got involved and went out in tiny boats to confront these huge whaling ships, people saw what was going on. It was no longer okay to slaughter whales for no good reason.

At the time it was tough luck on the companies that owned all these whaling factory ships, and all the people who were put out of work, but had this not happened, there would be no more whales left by now, and the whaling industry would have ended anyway.

The same thing is happening now with the closing of coal mines. No one likes to see people deprived of their livelihood, and governments don’t want to give up a cheap source of fuel for electricity. But is there still a choice when time is running out on global warming?

Which brings me to an issue that few are talking about. The world population. There are just too many people.

The world’s population has doubled in the last fifty years, that is since 1970. No time at all really, we cannot wait for it to double again, which is why some of us say time is running out. Watching this documentary illustrated the issue, seeing the huge amount of shipping required to distribute food to feed everyone.

Then there are all the animals required to feed the people, and the food required to feed the animals. People don’t like change, and no one wants to give up any freedoms. But, “If enough people cared, they could change the world,” but it seems to me that people are protesting less important issues and doing it in the wrong way.

Everyone, not just the people who are concerned about destroying the planet, should maybe more concerned about the planet destroying humankind. It is what Nature does.

I have two daughters, granddaughters, and great grandchildren. I am concerned for their future, but what can I do apart from write here? If enough people care, we can change the world. Maybe whole families of several generations need to demonstrate quietly, just as they did for the whales.

I don’t have all the answers, but perhaps we should at least talk about it. (Don’t you think?) The only other thing can be done, is cut back on consumption of certain foods, and all other goods.

There will be many who disagree with me, I am sure, but how long can the denial go on? Know that my intentions are good, and I ask you please keep your comments in the same vein.

Footnote: I am not sure what happened on Monday, but it seems a glitch deleted the post. This is a re-post.

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