Climb01742
05-07-2004, 07:57 AM
bear with me here. there is a connection between tv sitcoms and cycling. i think.
i read an article yesterday about how most of the great sitcoms have been about friends. (i personally don't consider "friends" great so i'll start my list someplace else.) seinfeld. cheers. MASH. mary tyler moore. taxi. the old dick van dyke show. and my fav of all time, the honeymooners.
but here's what i would add. great sitcoms are about a group of friends and they're about failure. about the quest for success and happiness, but the failure to achieve it. seinfeld is all about never getting a job, a girlfriend, even a table in a chinese restuarant.
going to my fav, the honeymooners. the greatness and true heart and soul of that show was watching ralph and norton dream and scheme to succeed. how about chef of the future? or that suitcase full of money? or ralph wanting to own a "string of polop ponies"? or trying to sell dog food as an appetizer? if ralph and norton had ever succeeded, it wouldn't have been nearly as funny, compelling and ultimately heartbreakingly human.
it was their quest for happiness and success that we/i loved. not the achievement of it. as tolstoi sort of said, happiness is boring. failure is compelling. or more precisely, the quest for happiness that ends tantilizingly short of happiness.
which, naturally, brings me to cycling.
for me, what i love about cycling is the training, the quest to ride better, further, faster, or just to the top of the next hill. achieving a goal in cycling, while nice, isn't what i really dig. its the journey, the challenge, the just out of my reach "next hill". i so much more enjoy trying to ride up a hill than i do getting to the top.
the mythologically inclined among us, and the failed screenwriters, will recognize the timelessness of "the quest". which is what cycling is for me. a quest to challenge myself, push myself. never quite reaching a goal, or continually pushing that goal further out, is what keeps me coming back.
its what kept me coming back to see if ralph and norton would ever grasp the ring. or if george would ever get a job or girlfriend. or if lou grant and mary richards would ever just kiss. i don't think most of us ride to succeed. we ride to ride, ride to challenge ourselves. just like a great sitcom. :p
i read an article yesterday about how most of the great sitcoms have been about friends. (i personally don't consider "friends" great so i'll start my list someplace else.) seinfeld. cheers. MASH. mary tyler moore. taxi. the old dick van dyke show. and my fav of all time, the honeymooners.
but here's what i would add. great sitcoms are about a group of friends and they're about failure. about the quest for success and happiness, but the failure to achieve it. seinfeld is all about never getting a job, a girlfriend, even a table in a chinese restuarant.
going to my fav, the honeymooners. the greatness and true heart and soul of that show was watching ralph and norton dream and scheme to succeed. how about chef of the future? or that suitcase full of money? or ralph wanting to own a "string of polop ponies"? or trying to sell dog food as an appetizer? if ralph and norton had ever succeeded, it wouldn't have been nearly as funny, compelling and ultimately heartbreakingly human.
it was their quest for happiness and success that we/i loved. not the achievement of it. as tolstoi sort of said, happiness is boring. failure is compelling. or more precisely, the quest for happiness that ends tantilizingly short of happiness.
which, naturally, brings me to cycling.
for me, what i love about cycling is the training, the quest to ride better, further, faster, or just to the top of the next hill. achieving a goal in cycling, while nice, isn't what i really dig. its the journey, the challenge, the just out of my reach "next hill". i so much more enjoy trying to ride up a hill than i do getting to the top.
the mythologically inclined among us, and the failed screenwriters, will recognize the timelessness of "the quest". which is what cycling is for me. a quest to challenge myself, push myself. never quite reaching a goal, or continually pushing that goal further out, is what keeps me coming back.
its what kept me coming back to see if ralph and norton would ever grasp the ring. or if george would ever get a job or girlfriend. or if lou grant and mary richards would ever just kiss. i don't think most of us ride to succeed. we ride to ride, ride to challenge ourselves. just like a great sitcom. :p