Praxeum

Since first hearing about it I have been fascinated by the aboriginal rite of passage of walkabout

I have often thought of this is dramatic and epic. But that’s not really true to the rite I think. It was meant as a time for young men to retrace their history and their land, stand on their own. I imagine that each person’s journey would have been epic and dramatic, but not in a blockbuster movie way.

I think now that, like most things it seems, this kind of experience would be in the small details, learning the trails and rites of your people in a private and intimate way. I way more felt than seen.

I have started going on periodic mini-walkabouts in my new home of Vancouver. I will take a few minutes, hours or day and walk. Sometimes I have a general destination, often not.

It’s a great experience to just walk the city, no iPod, looking around, making eye contact, smiling. Connecting with the place I live and the people I share it with.

One phenomenon I have noticed is something I call the forgotten smile. I make eye contact with someone, smile and maybe give them a nod of greeting and for a moment their face is blank, often a frown or a grimace and then they catch themselves, seeming to back into the here and now from wherever they had gone, return the smile and then look around, I like that.

During May I took two mountain bike courses and went mountain biking 3 times a week on average.

It was a great month, I learned a lot about biking and explored the Vancouver area a lot more. I also met a lot of really nice and energetic people.

One of my favorite things about learning, both teaching and being taught is how lessons and discoveries in one area of life or one mode of being can be applied to another.

Being immersed in mountain biking so intensely I noticed many of these.

Look where you want to go

This is probably the most repeated phrase during the sessions at the Dirt Series. During the morning sessions all the riders would get be separated into groups based on what skill they were going to work on and what level they are riding at, we’d then go practice skills, switching skills every 45 minutes.

When practicing skinnies (narrow bridges), tetter totters, drops, and turns this was the constant refrain of our instructors.

It’s strange how obvious and simple this sounds and yet how equally hard it is to do.

I encountered this sage truth while learning to snowboard this winter also. I kept falling when getting off the chair lift because I was looking down at my board, so I’d naturally go where my eyes were looking.

Over hundreds of thousands of years humans brains have evolved to take their bodies where their eyes are looking. This is a simple truth and learning to trust in it brings a kind of flow and peace to every activity I have tried it with.

This truth also correlates to live, to achieve your goals you must keep looking at them, not become distracted by your feet beneath you.

Balance

Biking as in nearly all sports is balance. If you are balanced on and across your bike you will be best able to use your bike, to ride your bike instead of being ridden.

This is true in relationships, a balance of speaking and listening, of laughing and crying and in activities, reading and watching, playing and resting.

Breathe

So easy to forget. When approaching anything scary, a big drop, a move across the country, a new friend, remember to breathe!

Commit to your line

This one I’ve been using everywhere.

In the courses we were taught this along with looking where you want to go. You need to commit to it, pick it and stick to it, approach it not thinking about stopping but about getting through and going on.

This is even true when your line doesn’t work out, as will oft happen. If you are riding a skinny and are going to fall off, you stick with it as long as you can, you keep looking where you want to go, but if you can’t make it, pick another line and commit to it, don’t waffle, you will get hurt.

The applications for this are wide and far reaching. From the route you take to work, to the hike you take next week to the place you want to be in your career in five years.

Consider consequences

I like this one because it came with some excellent physical examples. When learning about riding up narrow bridges leaning against longs our instructor talked about what happens when you face plant a log.

When learning about riding narrow, rocky and rooty areas. Our instructor asked what lines we’d take, several people spoke up with bravado and confidence, most people looked uncomfortable. Our instructor said, well those lines are good, but consider if you can’t quite do it you have a 20ft fall down a gorge to look forward to.

I’ve heard of this same notion in golf discussed as Risk and Reward. Is the reward of going for the long shot over the water hazard worth the risk of losing stokes?

Look like a pro

Sometimes looking like a pro, acting like one can help you a long. Get you over that plateau.

The lessons in mountain biking took the form of learning how to get going from stopped, pull the pedal up to the highest position, push the pedal down, ride away looking slick. This is as opposed to trying to ‘hamster wheel’ away by kicking your feet against the ground, you look and feel silly. The next example of this lesson was actually about walking with your bike, where to put your hands and how to hold the bike so you are not wasting energy and not going to get hurt.

I like the idea of a sabbath day. A day to rest and reflect.

I read a bit of the wikipedia article on Sabbath and I think I prefer the Buddist sabbath practice, occuring on the days the moon changes phases, which works out to every 7-8 days.

Today I tried to take easier. Reflect on the week past and to come. I went out and walked around, checking out the EPIC convention and getting some coffee, then had a nice nap with my cat Ned. I am now sitting down to X-Men Origins – Wolverine.