Mission Statement

The time has come for me to explain this blog's trajectory, or rather, since it's named after a game, its rules and boundaries. The time has come for no specific reason, other than my spontaneously deciding so about forty seconds ago. However, in the spirit of horseplay, I give you several possible mission statements and leave you to wonder if any of them are appropriate. 

1. I have to admit I've never played the game that this blog is named after, nor have I seen it played in person or in an internet video. In fact, I have no idea if such a game really exists. I read about this game on the internet, so chances are about thirty/seventy that it doesn't exist. The interesting part about it, though, is that--as opposed to traditional bicycle racing--the sprint for the finish takes place at the back of the pack and not at the front, for the last cyclist to finish the lap is "out." Think about this strategy of elimination in regard to ideas. Life is unbelievably complex and confusing, and one is often overwhelmed by thoughts and feelings that create a kind of muddle in the head. What if one felt no pressure to choose the one "correct" thought/feeling, but simply had to eliminate the one at the back of the pack? There'd be a lot of competition between all of your worst ideas, and think about how much fun that would be. Sure, eventually your best idea would triumph, but in the meantime you'd get to witness some healthy competition between two really bad ideas about how to deal with the guy at work you hate: should I fill his office with frozen cows or should I scare him while he's in his pajamas? That kind of conflict is exactly what I want to see in a blog.

2. The city is a grindstone, and living in it can reduce a person from a rock/island to a pebble in a short time. I often find human behavior irritating, frequently appalling, and since there isn't enough time in the day to reproach all of these loathsome behaviors, taking the time to reproach one or two of them here is the best I can do. This forum is where I can hope that we as humans are better than this--whatever idiotic thing we're doing--without saying to a specific individual, "Hey, stop being loathsome," and risking that specific loathsome individual kicking my teeth in. I don't mean to say that these behaviors are all things the Devil makes us do. Rather, I use devil in a secular sense in order to identify the worst within us. This is in the hope that the grindstone will eventually sharpen this blog to a point rather than into oblivion.

3. Many bicycle races involve laps (like this one), which gives racers the feeling they are working up sweats in some very unmentionable places simply to get back where they started from. In this way, bicycle racing feels very much like the daily grind that it is supposed to provide relief from. Since so many forms of our recreation require more work than work, it's clear that we as a species are just programmed this way, to torture ourselves through repetition.

4. Mission statements are bunk. Most good things are achieved by accident.