I'm using the prefix de- here to mean 'completely', and so delightful in my fanciful etymology means completely full of light. And so far, this winter 2022-23, that's what it's been. I can't remember a winter so delightful and completely full of light, and this winter light is the most exquisite of all light.
Cycling Meditations
Serene and Scenic Cycle Routes In & Around Glasgow
The Ungreat Teacher
The ungreat teacher teaches you how to be ungreat. This teaching is a crucial component in the devastation of the bodymindearth system that we can see at the outset of the 21st century. But that's not all the ungreat teacher teaches us. It also teaches you how to ignore, how to disrespect, how to seal off and separate (that which cannot be sealed off and separated), how to violate and pollute, how to disable and deform, how to be herdlike and petty, how to obey and serve (a rapacious and harmful machine), how to damage, how to enslave, how to discourage (Being), how to defile and de-flower Being, how to murder conviviality and biodiversity, and how to disregard the greatest teacher there is: Nature And who is this great ungreat teacher I hear you ask. Who or what is this ungreatful specimen?
And the answer comes back: Why... the car of course.
Light Cycle
The light cycle is the light sabre... and the light sabre... is the life-saver. But what does it mean to 'save life'? This! is the all-important question (and quest).
To save life is as it might suggest to not kill life and to not destroy it. Already then we are dealing with negatives since our whole civiliation is founded upon one: the ego and the resulting dualism that emerges from this split. We are dealing with 'not doing' as much as we are with doing. Indeed, what we are really seeking here is to not do to the point where doing (as original Being) occurs by itself. So, to save is a sort of subraction, a taking away and a taking off, a disrobing, of all the shit and non-sense that has been foisted on you. And believe me, that's a lot! So, too save life is to re-move and re-fuse, as in moving the body out of the prammed society and the transported-deported animal, and back into its own body, fusing it once again with its original matrix of Being: the primal and the first. And it's only when we become first again, and more importantly, when we shake off the seconded and sectioned (and secular), that we will 'save life'.
So, what are you waiting for?!
Routes of Light
Without these routes (these roots) I would probably not be here. Whether that non-being would manifest in death or an office job is neither here nor there. The point is that Being itself would have been rescinded.
Indeed, in the era of cancel culture one wonders if Being itself has been cancelled because it steps on too many capitalist toes. Which is why we need to get it back again. And the best way to recover Being is by uncovering your roots which have been waylaid by too much progressive capitalist uneconomic nonsense.
And this route (root) between Barrhead and Paisley Canal - up and over the Fereneze Hills - is worth its weight in air (there is no 'weight' only levity up here)...
Manahatta: Cessnock to Paisley & Back
What a day! The light in January....!!!
And since the trains are on strike we're on the bike all the way. So, it's off to Paisley by the back 'road'.
I was just reading about Manhattan in New York and how it is a native Amerindian word meaning, the land of little hills. And here between Cessnock and Paisley there are hills afoot. There is Bellahouston Hill, Corkerhill, Mosspark hill, Dykebar Hill, Huntershill, Ralston hill, Saucelhill, Barshaw Hill, Honeybog Hill, Hillington (hill), Cardonald Hill, Berryknowes Hill... That's a fair few hills but when you're on a bicycle you feel them all intimately. And it is this hilly intimacy that renders you sane and healthy. And that light!!!
At my gentle pace, the whole route, there and back, took two and half hours, but, as always, with routes like these, it might as well have been timeless.
Morning Milk: Castlemilk from Cessnock and Back
Oh what joy it is to have deep roots, or equally spacious routes. Routes are roots after all so you need to take care of them. The biggest problem for man today (as always) is 'being carried by another'. This carraige is actually a miscarriage of being because you are not doin it yourself. Ask the animals if you don't believe me. Ask Nature herself! Nature is the carrier, the only carrier. And it is this carrier that has generated 'you' thus far. However, during the past few hundred years Nature's informing has been usurped by the machine's. The result is that the human has become not in-formed (as would be the case had he remained true to the Earth) but de-formed since now he relies upon external power sources that not only deplete him but the environment that houses him. So, develop your routes, and deepen those roots! And ply them regularly!
Normally, I skip out the city by using the train, but today the train people are on strike and so I went through the hell-realm myself. But it ain't so bad in spite of how it looks. Sure, a lot of these 'neighbourhoods' are jam-packed full of cars and tenements but that kinda makes the streets cycle-friendly cause no car can actually go fast on them due to parked cars and the single-track nature of most residential streets accordingly. And so, it ain't so bad, and it's actually quite nice (for a wild cyclist) cycling on roads for the smoothness. And when you think of all the hoods I cycled through - Pollokshields, Dumbreck, Langside, Newlands, Giffnock, Muirend, Castlemilk, Simshill, Cathcart, Shawlands - in less than two hours, it's quite amazing the territory that you can cover on a bicycle compared to say on foot. And then there are the four parks I cycled through: Pollok Country Park, Netherlee Park, Queens Park, and Maxwell Park, all apart from perhaps the last large spacious areas with plenty of peace and green. And so, an hour and forty five minutes door to door and by the time I got back I was levitating..! This is because I have deep clean routes.
The Cyclist as Priest
Imagine seeing a priest and giving him the shoulder as he walked by you. That's how I feel when cars menace me, by creeping up behind me when there's no space to overtake (today, it was on a steep short single track road) and stalking me like a hunter stalks its prey. Why can't car drivers show cyclists and walkers (the non-polluters and thus holy people) the necessary respect? Lord knows, walkers and cyclists, in the era of the state of the art pram, have earned it. Why then would you threaten this person (and shoulder this priest) for being holy and healthy? Why? Because all car drivers (and this is the essence of being carried) inhabit an infantile consciousness that has not yet flourished and flowered. As such, they are an impatient lot and cannot wait to get past you. But really, all car drivers should be stopping completely in order to allow the cyclist or walker the necessary space with which to finish their climb. And in that stopping, they should all get out of their vehicles and kneel before the holy man, and thank them for setting a fine example and not shitting all over their children's air.