"Settle" For Your Highest Aspirations—Nothing Less!

I’m bone-weary of people who “settle” - people whose life amounts to a groveling slog toward perceived comfort and security provided by an un-sustainable and dysfunctional society via the government it so richly deserves. They are the many, the overwhelming majority, and they are surely destroying this world.  They sell their souls cheaply for electronic baubles – for perceived comfort and security, and ask others to pay the cost of their entitlements.  They steal from achievers and suck the life from producers. 

But achievement isn’t just about the top rung on the podium. I’m just as “done” with the Lance Armstrong clones we have produced in quantity, whose deep-seeded narcissism allows them to treat decent people, even good friends, like disposable diapers.  Their “that’s-how-I-roll” immoral code lets them justify lying, cheating, and trashing people who put their faith in them.  I still hold out some hope that somewhere there is loyalty as reward for loyalty, and love as reward for love.  Lance “I never tested positive for banned drugs” Armstrong faded pretty fast. There are new heroes.  Check out this interview segment from Bicycling.com

“Bicycling.com: Who are the influences in your life? 

“CH: My kids influence me every day. I got three kids, two girls and a boy. They’re fantastic. I always like to tell everyone they are absolutely the first thing I miss when I reach the end of the driveway; the moment I step in the home when I get back they are the first thing that gives me a headache. [Laughs] My girlfriend has a huge influence on my life. Just to be a better person, to be a good parent, a loving dad. I love my girlfriend. Those are the biggest influences.”

(Sorry Kristin Armstrong, Sheryl Crowe, etc, etc, but this guy is already taken.)

But ladies; before you get mushy about Chris Horner’s sensitive side, let’s take a look back well over a decade to a younger CH who was offered the chance to become a European professional cyclist and whose girlfriend-at-the-time gave him the sadly typical ultimatum: “Choose between your dream and me!”  Chris chose. Chris went to Europe.  He left soft lips and a warm bed for the sadistically hard life of an international pro cyclist.  And, as his reward for following his dream, he got the stuffings knocked out of him (as the sport of professional cycling is so deftly and cruelly capable of doing). He returned to the impoverished indentured servitude of North American continental pro cycling peleton, poor and battered and not-so-famous. 

But this smiling hard-man of the world’s cruelest and most demanding sport kept racing because it was what he was meant to do. And he nailed it – ALL of it!  Chris found the woman he was meant to share life with, and they brought into this world three wonderful children, and Chris won an honored spot on a top international team.

Now approaching age 40 and among the oldest riders to ever compete in the Tour de France, Chris was one of his team’s top “protected” riders and favored to place highly in the Tour when he crashed out in the first week of the 2011 tour. Again battered and broken, his first ride on his bike after his Tour de France crash (and forced abandonment of his dream) was back home in Bend, Oregon, with his wife riding at his side on her own bike (she is a former woman pro racer).

There won’t be a Tour de France podium in Chris Horner’s future. But when a competitor crashed and broke his bike near the end of a pro race a while back, Chris rode up and pushed him along through the last kilometers to the finish, smiling all the way. And people who follow cycling know about that.  They know about his family life.  They know about his humanity. They know about his resolve and sacrifice – not sacrifice of himself for strangers, by demand of some government agency, but voluntary sacrifice to be all he can be, for himself and for his loved ones (and fans like me).

My wife has often mused as to whether rich people are happy. I have been waiting for thirty years to give her my ideal example as an answer to her question. Thank you, Chris Horner!

I hope he runs for US Congress - against Lance Armstrong!