Not your Average Chuck Norris Joke

Up until things got extra hairy over at Pitt, I used to take up every last chance I got to hop onto my bike to ride away into the horizon, even when that involved putting the rest of my life on hold for a bit. One such time, I was performing my favorite kind of cycling activity: the one where you fuck off to far away lands only to return... well, whenever, really. Specifically, I was riding up the Allegheny Passage somewhere close to Whitsett, PA when a strange thought crossed my mind. What if what I was really doing when I pedaled was pushing the Earth beneath my wheels instead of my bike itself?

The implication here is that instead of running away from my problems, I'm pushing them behind me. That instead of going somewhere, I'm bringing that place to me. It emphasizes that things are where they are because I am the one who wants them there, not because of externalities. It provides me with a sense of control I seem to be unable to get otherwise due to a temporary combination of circumstance and goals.

At the end of the day, this is just a thought experiment and the outcome is just the same; I go some place else that doesn't stink of jail cell, I ignore all stressors for a few days, I reset at the cost of compressing my schedule some. However, I found reversing the frame of reference like that to be a helpful tool to identify non-superficial reasons why I do things. Finding out why something feels good seems more important to me now than just doing things because they feel good. Often times, I find those reasons to be a good lead to discover an underlying problem and perhaps a possible solution.

Anyways... jokes aside, I push the Earth beneath my feet 💪