Cycling In Stressful Times

The French have a word – ‘boulverser’ – that I really like. Depending how you use it, it can mean to move deeply, to upset, to change drastically or to turn upside down. All of this seems to be happening around the world, even here in Canada! Years ago, I worked in isolated areas of Africa and the only way to find out what was happening in the world was listening to BBC radio news on short wave – most young people probably have no idea what I am talking about. In any case, even then news was always about the distressful things happening around the world. I used to joke that the newscaster should finish by saying, “and nothing happened in Canada today.” Well, this is no longer the case. We are no longer an exception. We are being ‘boulverserized’ in Canada as well.

It all seems to come in cycles. Apparently, even biblical prophets talked about 80 year cycles. We humans simply don’t seem to be able to change. We are very good at inventing new things, at going where no human has ever gone before, at healing our bodies, at controlling (or is it at destroying nature?) but the one thing we are unable to change is our nature…or at least how to control the blind ambitions of people who rise to the highest ranks among us; the emperors, tzars, kings and wannabes. No matter that when all is said and done, these ambitious (or maybe deranged) individuals, are likely to die in violence, imprisoned, abandoned and ridiculed but the damage they cause on the rest of us doesn’t seem to bother them one bit.

What is one to do? When I write this question, what pops into my mind is Rudyard Kipling and his poem ‘If’.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Kipling obviously was a wise and insightful man.

The other thing that keeps popping into my mind at this time of stress and cacophony emanating from all around is how to deal with it. Of course, it is the famous motto – Keep Calm. Yes, ‘Keep Calm And Ride On’.

We all know that cycling has many benefits. There are books, magazines, websites, blogs that extoll physical activity, particularly cycling, with its ability to reduce stress and anxiety. That is so because cycling combines physical activity with the soothing benefits accrued from being in nature (well, depending on where you cycle). According to studies, cycling can lower cortisol levels which is associated with stress and increases the amount of endorphins that we all know make us feel good.

So here in Toronto, we stay calm, keep our heads and run TDA tours. Yes, there are, and will be obstacles; route changes, interruptions, wars and the impact from geopolitics and economics. We do what we always do. We are problem solvers, we adapt, we create new routes. Rulers change, sometimes very slowly and then quickly, and better times arrive.

In the meantime, if you follow our blogs and social media, you will find that we have a full menu planned for 2025 and for 2026. And as far as I know there is no better way of escaping the ‘noise’ than going on a bicycle adventure, preferably the longer the better. Call it escapism if you wish. Our Operations Manager recently suggested a new tour called ‘In the Footsteps of Chaos’. Anyone interested?

PS: I hear that the one and only Warren Buffet had one very important suggestion to investors…he told them to read Kipling’s ‘If’!!