The Perennial Re-surfacing of Man

 Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without improvement, are roads of genius.

William Blake

It's usually about this time of the year that all the major re-surfacing works begin on roads. And I've already seen a few up on the backroads behind Paisley, notably the Gateside Road at Killoch Glen (where I had to cycle through a field to circumvent it, try doing that on a road bike!), and the Greenfieldmuir Road between Mossneuk and Foreside Farms. 

The beautiful thing about cycling (especially on an all terrain bike) is that these signs are irrelevant if not slightly humorous.

Unlike these roads, which are resurfaced sporadically, man finds himself in a constant state of resurfacing to the point where he simply cannot penetrate the bedrock of Reality any longer. This is what happens when you begin to define the self by what you put on, by cosmetics and not 'cosmics', things and not artefacts, stasis and not dynamic.

Identity, however, is not idiosycracy. It is not what you put on (or drive) that makes you who you are, but what you relieve yourself of. Everyone has this same identity. To think of yourself as anything other than 'same' is to be deluded. This is the beauty of cycling these back roads. All the extraneous nonsense is swept off the self, by the exertion, the elements, the effervescence of being alone and all one. You realize that identity is identification of the underlying essence that unites all living creatures. It is to this end that I can safely say that I share more with a wildflower (moving, breathing, flourishing, and open to the elements) than I do with most covered-up humans. Humans have lost their way, allowed their selves to be dislocated and downgraded. They put an unconscionable amount of stuff on their bodies, and in them, which only succeeds in covering up who they really are. Whether its tattoos or clothes, handbags or all manner of fashion accessories, man has dolled himself up so much as to suffocate the greater self that lurks within.

What would happen if you allowed man to revert to his aboriginal state, stopped re-surfacing, stopped adding, but just left him alone to be? What would happen if you stopped cars and HGVs running over him, polluting him, fly-tipping on top of him? What do you think would happen?

Self-restraint is the key. The paradox is that only through the negating of the self, will the self ever appear in its entirety. 

Do not allow yourself to be resurfaced so readily. And think twice before parting with your hard-earned cash to buy something that will simply advertise the company you bought it from (surely they should be paying you?). I worry about cyclists who seem to think that if they have not got the latest clobber on they can't cycle. I am lucky enough to have a younger brother who has more clothes than he can shake a stick at (though he is learning), and has a tendency to throw them into the washing machine at a higher temperature than he should have. The result being that his three inch shorter, eleven year older brother, can makes use of them as if they had been specifically designed for his athletic five foot nine inch frame. Otherwise, I'd probably be cycling naked, or as I once did, in my everyday shorts and t-shirt, like a tramp. 

Helmets are for helmets as I say when I see cyclists kitted out in the latest fashions. There are studies that clearly show that wearing a helmet can be counter-productive and actually cause drivers (thinking you are safer) to not give you as much room when passing as they would with a non-helmet wearing cyclist.... 

It's all a big con, but those embroiled into the man-world cannot for the life of them see it. But, come into these hills often enough under your own steam, and you will develop the insight required to cut through all the bull-shit that the man-world is full of.

Try it!

What have you got to lose except your make-up?

Two tramps by the side of the cycle path. Not a helmet in sight. [Summer, 2006]