Joy Regain

Bike Month begins with May Breakfasts and promises of group rides full of new camaraderie and velorution’s cheer, but generally grinds to an inglorious coda with a blank stare, no resolutions near, and tweaks in gear to prepare for shift from sweater weather to sweatier wedge of year.

Cut losses, scorch earth, sever ties, take hits, walk away: All viable options versus relentless distress. Those who want what you've dearly gained may torment you into giving it away through their persistence. It's how religions and states stay entrenched seemingly forever. Unlike thieves who want it right now, they'll tax and tithe you over time into nonexistence.

Acquisitions don’t amplify self. Conquests don't create heroes. Only a witless consumer cares about collectibles. Museums are full of mediocre examples of masters. Sometimes one's original masterwork or perfect example is what's really worth preserving, the rest disposable maquettes, sketches, or studies. Staffs display only top 25% of what's owned alongside temporary exhibits of special items they've been loaned. Otherwise, attendees would be few, events postponed.

Taine described ancient sculptures as battle victims in time ravaged fields of severed heads, limbs and torsos. Modern curators display surviving fragments, so contemporary critics tend to characterize output as focused on busts and heads alone, which, of course, is completely false. Full figured original sculptures were too hard to move, thus steal, so pieces, faces and hands, were often hacked off and shoved into bags for tourists to buy. Nowadays thieves park vehicles in vicinity, part nonferrous objects and plaques from bases, slip away furtively, and smelt into untraceable, valuable scrap. Historical artifacts get destroyed or mysteriously disappear for momentary gratifications, though culture doesn't incontrovertibly feed bullies' bellies.

What do you value? Many would say money, but what an amorphous commodity that shrinks, smells and stretches worse than a woolen jersey. Art today means concerts, ephemera, films, graphics, intangibles not at all collectible, just accursed intersections in time-space continuum. People have closets full of tee shirts, today’s sandwich boards advertising one enjoyable encounter or hip happenstance after another. Many simply do without, as if art appreciation wasn't a life requisite. Depression results, but nobody cares or wants to be saddled with chores of dealing with yours. Feel of steel cranked beneath your heel might improve mood and make deal more vital and zeal more real.

What do you know? Information gatherers guard facts for own use against rivals, regard intellectual property as their primary asset. Market analysts and stock brokers say all sorts of stuff to convince you to act in their best interests, not yours. Then there’s Potsherd Dump’s nonstop disinformation stump and unconscionable reliance on Ailesflux’s harassment thump aimed at spreading doubts and triggering fears that divide nation and dominate electorate. Transparency and truth take a beating every day citizens don't insist upon them. But an economy set back on track 8 years ago will be claimed as a triumph by a megalomaniac who’s done nothing at all but exploit outcome. Polls support this betrayal as long as books show black and prices don't rise at gas pump before next election, although at least half are aware leaders will always stack deck against them, so swallow Prozac lest they crash their Cadillac because of a panic attack.

A reasonable barrier to truth comes from business regulations resulting in policies that block releasing personal data, through many scofflaws bristle at any notion of restriction or want to use bits of your history against you out of greed, malice or spite. Who doesn’t prefer privacy over full disclosure? From facts factions fashion weapons. Whoever you grant power and privilege to ought to be completely transparent and totally trustworthy, yet a billionaire in office redacts every official document lest some tiny detail impacts next dirty deal he transacts. Why stick your nose into his finances?

Funny about phrases, such as, “Mind your own business,” which appeal to majority as commonsense advice agreed mutually. What leaders do affects you personally, amplifies across entire world, is your business, whereas what you do influences nobody but own family, friends or neighbors. Should be that policy protects personal privacy not public service of people in power. But in today’s burgeoning bizarro reality just about everything becomes its diametric opposite. Goals, targets and temptations society dangles as starry spangles peg you to servile roles feeding black holes forbidden to peak in their keyholes.

You’ve got your own life to live, places to go, people to meet once forecast permits. And ya' tailor joy through every diatribe-less dalliance among cyclists you admire in allegiance with those who confer awards upon such an outstanding achiever. Accomplishments and relationships offer all the pleasures life allows, not stockpiles of empty miles and ill-gotten percentiles. Find freedom, forge forward, forget rest, form best, and pedal onward.

"Sittin' down by my window, honey, lookin' out at the rain... Now baby, this can't be in vain. Hope there's someone who can tell me why love is just like a ball and chain." - Janis Joplin