Selfishness Kills

Well not really in this case, as I am still writing to tell my brief tale.  Yet I am nonetheless disappointed in myself.  

I have failed Viktor Frankl, Chris Warner and Don Schmincke in less than two weeks into the course.  I have let Viktor Frankl's memory down in his "And there were always choices to make.  Every day, every hour . . ." passage, and not followed Chris Warner and Don Schmincke's guidance on Selfishness.  I have learned nothing from the first few chapters of Ed Viestur's No Shortcuts to the Top:


There was a strong headwind from the west, yet I was making good time.  Damn wind, tired of staring straight into it as a I peddle across the rough asphalt road of southern Shelby Farms.  I put my head down for just a second . . . and I was off the edge of the road into the gravelly asphalt.  I corrected, but the damage was done. I heard the hiss of air escaping that sends dread into new cyclists and makes some experienced ones impatient - a flat!  My front tire was flat - my first of the year. 

I do not get a lot of flat tires because besides the Kevlar side walls on my tires, I am constantly vigilant about my position in the road and the debris on it.  I believe I ride situationally aware and have been fortunate to have never been in a collision with a moving or stationary object, other bikers, animals, road furniture and the like.  I choose to be situationally aware and alert so that I can make minute adjustments to my position relative to the situation.

At the moment before the flat, I chose to be selfish, let me head down for a second to take  break from the wind, which caused me to veer ever so slightly and go off the road.  I did not choose to remain vigilant with every peddle stroke, in every minute of the ride, as extolled by Frankl, and I paid a consequence as a result: lost time to change a flat.  From High Altitude Leadership and No Shortcuts to the Top, such a relatively minor and simple mistake could literally have killed me in the mountains.   


What I took away from the experience is that we can be selfish with not just others but with ourselves. When choosing to do so we are not taking the path Frankl extolled, or practicing the commitment of hardiness.