two hundred sixty nine

THE ART OF TALKING TRASH

Muhammad Ali was the king of trash talk. He brought a new element to the sport of boxing that initially was not well received. He came on the scene during the civil rights movement following other boxers like Joe Lewis. Lewis was a champion more comfortable allowing his gloves to do the talking.

Ali was brash, mouthy, loud and sometimes rude. I remember my dad hating him in the beginning of his career. People watched hoping to see this big mouth get his ass kicked, which was great for ticket sales.

What happened fight after fight was he kept winning and winning. He even started to pick the round he would knock his opponent out. The public became less and less outraged but one thing I noticed was how my dad changed his opinion of Ali.

My dad began to respect the fact that he backed up what he said with results. He was also funny, fast, smart and yes pretty. I loved him earlier then my dad but over time he won over a whole generation of blue-collar white men. They possibly had issues with his race and the tone of his trash talk but there was an absolute respect for his ability to deliver on what he promised.

As a man myself I understand this world, I hated Joe Namath but respected his come back win with the Jets. The humiliation of the players that foolishly engaged in trash talk with Micheal Jordan. Baseball is legendary for trash talk starting with Babe Ruth pointing at the left field fence before a home run smash.

Individual athletes are often egotistical jerks if you get too close but if they say it and do it I respect them for what they achieved.  Saying what you will do and doing what you said is my measure of people in general. Some is polite and low key, some is loud and in your face and some is completely obnoxious. Each level determines the amount of crow they will be required to eat.

It is high risk behavior that requires mental and physical endurance  and the ability to deliver in high pressure situations. Most elite athletes perform better under extreme pressure. The average person will avoid these situations at any cost. I'm not good with pressure but I can take a beating so the endurance and mental toughness part is what I understand.  

On the other end if a person won't commit, pick a side, make a declarative statement or simply say yes or no, there will never be crow in their diet. They will safely avoid the humiliation and pain of the agony of defeat but they will never feel the thrill of victory.

How much of a champion is motivated by the repulsion to the taste of crow and how much is the addiction to the thrill of victory? I think it is a combination of both.

I myself enjoy winning but I don't get that much of a charge out of it. On the other hand I absolutely hate losing with a every fiber of my being. I don't risk winning and losing to a game of chance. I will risk my pride on a few games of skill. And I will risk everything on my ability to endure until the end.

Riding a bicycle thousands of miles takes a certain personality type. It is physically painful a great deal of the time. The muscle fatigue, burning lungs, joint pain not to mention a narrow bicycle seat jammed up your ass. Dirt, sweat, hard ground, hills, headwinds, hot sun, rain and insects make it even more interesting.

As for trash talk I use it almost exclusively for motivation. I don't want a parade or trophy at the end of my trip in fact I try to avoid attention. I get a thrill out of knowing I did it and I wear a Cheshire Cat smile for months. I do search the faces of the people I told I was going, particularly the doubters to see how they react. He said it and did it, that is the thrill for me. 

Day after day, week after week and month after month navigating  unfamiliar highways under my own power. Fatigue, aches and pains, mental isolation and emotional loneliness but I could not quit. The fact that I said I was going to do it got me on that bike morning after morning. 

That first days turn of the crank often brought forth a grown. After a few miles I was back into it but there were days that sucked from sun up to sunset. After a day or two feeling like this I always got my head back in the game.

Bicycle touring is a long slog filled with highs and lows. If it didn't feed something deep in my soul I would never do it. Pride can't be the main reason to endure but it is part of it. It is something running in the background that I rarely think about, but sometimes it is the only thing I think about.

After 30 years of sobriety I know pride got me through a few bad days.