We're in good company
08-09-17, 08:13 AM
#1
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We're in good company
In 1895, Russian author Leo Tolstoy was stricken by the death of his favourite son Vanichka, who died from scarlet fever at seven years of age. Tolstoy’s diary reveals his anguish and his agony. Three days after his son’s death, he wrote, “We have buried Vanichka. A terrible loss.”
Tolstoy sought a remedy for his grief. So, at the age of sixty-seven, he learned to ride a bicycle.
Tolstoy was presented with a brand-new machine, a gift from Moskovskoye Obshchestvo Lyubiteley Velosipede (the Moscow Society of Velocipede-Lovers). An instructor came to teach him, free of charge, and Tolstoy was soon riding along his garden paths most mornings after writing.
Many were shocked by Tolstoy’s apparent insensitivity and callousness. Scientific American reported, “Count Leo Tolstoy… now rides the wheel, much to the astonishment of the peasants on his estate.” One of Tolstoy’s longtime friends wrote: “Tolstoy has learned to ride a bicycle. Is this not inconsistent with Christian ideals?”
Tolstoy replied: “I feel that I am entitled to my share of lightheartedness and there is nothing wrong with enjoying one’s self simply, like a boy.”
Like a boy, and because of a boy, Tolstoy was slowly riding away from sadness, toward happiness. It would be a long, long journey. But at least the journey had begun.
Source: https://twohundredbicyclerides.wordp...ss-part-three/
Tolstoy sought a remedy for his grief. So, at the age of sixty-seven, he learned to ride a bicycle.
Tolstoy was presented with a brand-new machine, a gift from Moskovskoye Obshchestvo Lyubiteley Velosipede (the Moscow Society of Velocipede-Lovers). An instructor came to teach him, free of charge, and Tolstoy was soon riding along his garden paths most mornings after writing.
Many were shocked by Tolstoy’s apparent insensitivity and callousness. Scientific American reported, “Count Leo Tolstoy… now rides the wheel, much to the astonishment of the peasants on his estate.” One of Tolstoy’s longtime friends wrote: “Tolstoy has learned to ride a bicycle. Is this not inconsistent with Christian ideals?”
Tolstoy replied: “I feel that I am entitled to my share of lightheartedness and there is nothing wrong with enjoying one’s self simply, like a boy.”
Like a boy, and because of a boy, Tolstoy was slowly riding away from sadness, toward happiness. It would be a long, long journey. But at least the journey had begun.
Source: https://twohundredbicyclerides.wordp...ss-part-three/
08-09-17, 09:15 AM
#2
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Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live. ~ Mark Twain
That quote was taken from this little essay on the learning to ride a bike.
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/twa...chapter15.html
I'm rather fond of Twain's writing style (if you've not read "Roughing It", you should). He has a way of personalizing things with just a hint of journalistic license:
That quote was taken from this little essay on the learning to ride a bike.
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/twa...chapter15.html
I'm rather fond of Twain's writing style (if you've not read "Roughing It", you should). He has a way of personalizing things with just a hint of journalistic license:
I have been familiar with that street for years, and had always supposed it was a dead level; but it was not, as the bicycle now informed me, to my surprise. The bicycle, in the hands of a novice, is as alert and acute as a spirit-level in the detecting the delicate and vanishing shades of difference in these matters. It notices a rise where your untrained eye would not observe that one existed; it notices any decline which water will run down. I was toiling up a slight rise, but was not aware of it. It made me tug and pant and perspire; and still, labor as I might, the machine came almost to a standstill every little while.
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08-09-17, 09:39 PM
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A bicycle keeps a person looking forward. In my experience the mark of true old age is when a person's conversation is filled with what they did instead of what they intend to do.
08-09-17, 10:29 PM
#5
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Einstein commented on the bicycle, I believe. And was pictured riding.
Needs the pic.
Needs the pic.
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Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
08-10-17, 09:03 AM
#6
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"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you have to keep moving" ~ Einstein
to which I add this corollary:
"Life is also like riding a bicycle, because you need to look where you're going, not where you've been."
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Proud parent of a happy inner child ...
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08-12-17, 05:45 PM
#7
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Don't forget Susan B. Anthony's quote about the bicycle. Also the late Hans Rosling said that he considered ownership of a bicycle to be the difference between tolerable poverty and abject poverty.
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069
08-12-17, 06:02 PM
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Thank you for this story. It's important to remember our humanity.
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Unless you climb the rungs strategically, you’re not going to build the muscle you need to stay at the top.
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08-14-17, 05:01 AM
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When my wife passed away in 2014, and then my mother passed away just six weeks after that, getting out for a ride, I believe, is the only thing that kept me from sliding into a deep depression.
