>not 'having a go at you'
bro, I know, this whole thread was just fun, to see who came out of the closet in their riding gear.
>the 'animal' that I hear is not 'competition'
I know... we aren't talking about the same thing. When I heard you talking about business and overhead projectors, I knew you were in a different vein. Not to say business isn't competitive, because it is, and I personally like competitive high risk/reward work, but 'sports' are different than 'work', even if you are professional athlete and both are one in the same.
This thread was about motorcycle porn... meaning, explicitly gratuitous images and videos of an extreme motorsport. It naturally has to touch on racing and competition, just as much as if, like Damian, the idea is to just make it over a pass in some exotic country and sit on your helmet for a moment to have a smoke and take it all in all.
But it does have to do with the extreme side of things, because that is where the meaning in things like this are obvious. That is why I didn't post pics about people's daily commute to the store on mopeds. It is about that feeling you get when you are on a bike and you feel perfect and everything is in harmony, allowing you to push your bike and yourself beyond maybe what you thought you were capable of.... whether that means committing your entire body to a curve, or making it down the muddy side of a rutted mountain, with the shiny side still up... and celebrating the fact you are in as much control of your life as you'll ever be, for better or for worse.
When I ride my bike, I am deeply involved with the moment. I don't daydream. I don't think about work. I don't do anything but focus on what I'm doing because what I'm doing demands my attention. Same with driving 16 race dogs at night, in the high country. Same as when some guy 10 years younger and 30 lbs heavier is trying to kill me at jiu-jitsu.
So yeah, if you want to listen to the speech and think about 'quality management' training sessions, well, yeah, its going to be completely ridiculous, because you took it completely out of context. But if you are jogger that has trouble getting out of bed in the morning, then maybe you can begin see the truth behind the words and find some encouragement to 'just do it'. But if you are talking about REALLY seeing what you are made of, at the expense of recalibrating your ego with reality... possibly in a way you could be fundamentally dissatisfied with your performance or kill you... then that speech is dead on target. And that is why motorcycle racing is so cool in my opinion. These guys literally risk their lives to beat other equally talented people with the same mindset and goals.
I don't know... nothing really matters. It's us who give things meaning. And I see meaning when I push myself well beyond what I thought was possible. And after I feel comfortable with the 'relative', then I look for the highest expression of whatever I'm involved with so I can pit myself against the very best in competition. Not because I want to beat the other person, but because I want to beat my own image of myself, and live up to my own standards. And in this pursuit, I learn about myself, expand my capacity, make the most of myself and my life, so when I die, at least I know I actually lived. Right now, at 39, I've had a rich enough life that I could die today and it wouldn't have been a waste or a tragedy. Most people have only experienced life through the TV and the movies and their goal is to only get to the next paycheck or the weekend.
So for me, this speech is about life, just not sports. But I find it impossible to talk about competition, without using the same language that's in the speech. It's like in one of the first videos where the guy says, "and if you came in second, you just wanted to kill everybody." No one but a true competitor would understand that feeling because its about competition, not participation. I love racing against people who think this way, and I find it a complete waste of time to race against the guys that think otherwise because there is no glory in beating losers. (btw, that is not directed at you 4eyes, at all)
