here's to keeping the proverbial green tree close at hand heart and attracting the Monstuh' Truck Singing Birds

Is that the name of our new band?

great idea! 

I play really good Air Guitar 

was riding my bike yesterday. seems like it has some type of issue, where if i pedal hard it misses a gear or two, but if i pedal slowly it works fine. so when i go uphill if i get all gestaltzimfleeged about it and pedal like a madman it actually slows things down...

ZemirosShabbos wrote on 23 Aug 2011 20:55:


More bicycle lessons

ZemirosShabbos wrote on 23 Aug 2011 20:55:

I'm sure there is some sort of deep lesson here.

gibbor120 wrote on 23 Aug 2011 23:34:

Yes. Very deep:  You get what you pay for. Especially when they are on sale at Wal-Mart.

gibbor120 wrote on 23 Aug 2011 23:34:

On a simple level however the lesson is that at times we expend effort thinking that its our efforts that allow us to accomplish when in  fact not only are efforts not bringing us closer to our goal they are actually frustrating our reaching that goal.
עיין עלינו. לשבח. ספר דברים עמוד נה. "האדם, ברוב סכלותו, ומחמת אי,-סבלמתו  מכניס את עצמו לצרות ויסורים שכלל לא. גזר עליו. אם היה עוצר לרגע ממרוצתו, מרוצת הנפש והבהלה, ועורך חשבון נפש נוקב עם ליבו ומחליט להטיל את כובד השקל של הענין בו הוא עסוק, על הקבה, ונשים בו את מבטחים, מתוך ידיעה ברורה שהאלוקים שהכניס אותו אל הענין הזה, יש בו כח לחלצו מן המיצר הרי שללא ספק היה רואה בישועת ה' כהרף עין, הרבה יותר מהר ממה שחשב

Ditto.

Back on Track wrote on 24 Aug 2011 01:10:

You must be pedaling too hard.  You need to admit powerlessness and give over your desire to have an avatar to Hashem .

Ur soooo right. No more pedalin' just say no.

my much-maligned bike is a 2007 Mongoose bought for $120 from Amazon, so it has a fine pedigree, thank you.

and thank you UAJ for so eloquently expounding upon the bike-mussar
another point that was brought home to me yesterday on the bike was that to me the most enjoyable part of riding is downhill, where it takes no effort to move along and the wind rushes by. The only responsibility i have then is to make sure to slow down or stop in time for obstacles. But no real gain is made health-wise, any more than riding a roller-coaster. Pedaling uphill or on level ground where you expend effort, is where the health benefits are. so too in life.

and today's saying is:

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think.  Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do,
there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
  ~A.A. Milne

It's that moment what you have your honey and you're eating it too 

ZemirosShabbos wrote on 24 Aug 2011 14:26:


Thank you for reinforcing yesterday's lesson that you get what you pay for.