I am lucky.
I have good friends.
They run the gamut.
I am going to deal with one of those friends.
A guy.
I will make the next post about another of those friends.
A girl.
His name is Ryan.
He is one of those guys that you have to listen to closely.
Carefully.
He is fast.
Bright.
Insightful.
Sincere.
You do not want to miss a thing.
He can say something very fast.
But it is something that is so astute, funny, and insightful, that you grab onto it.
You cannot grab on long, because he has moved on, and you have to be ready for the next one.
He is also the best Cyclist I have met and know.
He races.
He has a team.
He is relatively quiet about it, though.
I think he has an internal rule.
This is his world.
Not everyone wants to hear about it 24/7.
Kind of ‘there is more to life’ rule.
It is admirable.
And believe me, there is lots more to his life.
One time I was asking how he did in a race he had competed in the day before.
He talked about it briefly but spent far more time talking about his ride home from that race.
It was after 10:00 PM, July night, 28 degrees, lots of stars, a big moon, crickets, a bridge, the river, and him.
He said to me that while he was riding home, he asked himself, or better, questioned himself.
‘Does life get better than this?’
His response was, well, I am writing about it so haha, that says it all.
His response was, ‘Perhaps not.’
And he was utterly and completely content with that.
It really left a mark on me.
It is not that I am looking for more.
It is not that I am needing more.
It is realizing I am in a moment.
It is realizing what I have in this moment.
And how lucky I am to be in this moment.
How wonderful this moment is.
Remember it.
When I ride now and everything lines up, I ask myself, ‘Does life get better than this?’
‘Perhaps not.’
And I am utterly and completely content with that.
‘Maybe this is as good as it gets?’
Insert content emoji here.
‘There is another way to ride.’