Trial, Tribulation and Jubilation

Preface

Life is not a destination, it is a journey.

This saying is so true to the core that should one will to retrospect his/her past, the reality of life is a journey of trying, tumultuous at times and smooth sailing at others, anguish, sadness, suffering, joy and happiness that completes a life cycle. From time immemorial life for the human species is a journey of unprecedented adventure that experienced great pain, error and achievement, and eventually advancing to this modern age of high technology.

One must not forget that human had paid an optimum price to achieve what and where we are today, but, it is not the end as this life journey will only stop when life is no more. The only consolation is that life greatest gift to mankind is the ability to adapt and adjust to different environment and terrain in the face of tremendous adversity. When fallen, one is able to stand up and continue life as per normal. This is the greatest asset which is inherent in human beings.

This is a natural survival kit that helps us through the perils of life’s journey. It is like a toddler beginning to move around by wriggling its body, crawling and finally standing up and walking wobbly from one point to another, and in between, tumble and fall, knocking its head and body, resulting in bruises, and only then, it learn to move steadily. This principle also applies to work and play and in order to reach to our desired position or level, we have to go through this inevitable ritual so that we will emerge a better and stronger person, able to face more challenges without fear.

I chose this title because it is the reality that we are experiencing every minute of our lives in everything that we do, especially so in any activities that we are engaged in. Trial, tribulation and jubilation are ingrained and are part of the activities or hobbies. We cannot segregate them neither can we remove them, on the contrary, we should embrace them with activities as one. They are part of our feeling, sensation and achievement evolving throughout our lives and never stop until life stops. And because of these elements, our aspiration to improve in all things that we do are deeply rooted in our mind, and sad to say, it was mistakenly interpreted as ego by others.

It is by chance that this topic was envisioned at this opportune time to conceptualise in our cycling and mountain climbing or other activities, and to provide a cushioning platform to those who suffered bruises and scratches at one time or another. Having chosen this title, with their incorporation, I am able to narrate one activity after another in the form of episode in order to have a continuation in this series, and hopefully to share my thoughts, feelings and opinion with the group, capitalising these three elements to justify my claim. In fact, these three elements can be well demonstrated, testified and illustrated in our recent mountain climbing at Kota Kinabalu. I leave this topic to my colleague who is able to provide a vivid description on this adventure. Even though our thinking and writing skill is different, the essay cannot be devoid of these three elements, and to add further, they are the motivational forces behind our progress, development and improvement. Otherwise life will be a state of stagnation.

I will start off with our main activity.

Cycling

Falling down is easy, getting up is difficult

Cycling is a healthy sport engaged not only by the young but the old as well. It is good for the body and the mind as a whole and it develop our alertness and quick responses. It can be so much fun riding in a group, and at times, outpacing one another in a friendly atmosphere, taking into consideration the imminent risks that underlie in this fast pace activity. Notwithstanding, it comes with injuries when one is not careful. Having said that, on one hand we have to be safety conscious and, on the other, should we encounter mishap, tumble and fall, then we have to accept it as part of the activity. It is synonym to life’s journey and no matter how uncanny it seems, it is there to happen, sooner or later.

Insomuch as activity is concerned, cycling twice a week has become a norm, and obviously, after so many months, everyone has seen vast improvement in their capability to ride faster and faster. And in between, some of us have tumbled and experienced nasty fall and injuries. Nevertheless, we were always able to stand up and resume the activity. This is a key message to each and every one of us and has proven a point that on every try, we face much difficulties and at times, experienced pain in order to emerge triumphant. Improvement do not come easy, not to mention success. Just like any sportsman, what we would like to see is improvement and ultimately, success follows. We practise, we race and we outpace in order to feel this magic word – improvement. Regretfully, some others might think that we are egoistic.

There is a misused of the word “ego” as far as the cycling group is concerned. Ego is more for self-esteem and prominence which means that an individual always try to project himself important. This element of ego is absent in our group. Even though we race and outpace one another, it is to compete. Competition is fair play and is definitely not egoistic. If that is the case, then all sportsmen and women are egoistic. That is totally a wrong perception.

Instead of ego, aspiration is a better word. We have been born in this world, brought up and taught by our parents to have aspiration in order to integrate competently into this rat race society and to do things well, to improve on our life-style, to reach our goal in work places and the like. Since young, this mantra was consistently mentioned so much so that it becomes part of our conscious mind. Some of our group’s cyclist who themselves are parents, are doing the same. Thus everything that we do, whether it is work or play all of us has the aspiration to do better, irrespective of age. So it is not a surprise that we bring this concept in our cycling sessions.

At all times, the cycling group enjoys this activity with fun and thrill and at the same time to gauge one another of their riding skill and speed, so that we can make some introduction to certain strategy that can be adopted where everyone is comfortable and relax in riding as a group. As the group’s cycling matured, a new strategy called drafting was introduced which is able to improve one’s stamina and increase his speed in tune with others. This is more meaningful and thrilling and able to put more emphasis on safety in all areas.

To summarize, I would like to emphasize that in spite of some hi-cup and misunderstanding of attitude in our cycling group, the elements of trial, tribulation and jubilation are definitely evident in our activity that gave rise to aspiration. They are always present as a cataract for improvement.

I hope we could take some time to look into them, understand them so that we can enhance our life more meaningfully. Our consolation is that we are not taking up any death defying activities like F1 racing, sky gliding, boat racing etc, and by so doing, we are able to minimise our risks. If god’s willing, we live longer to enjoy a healthy and active life for many more years to come.


Contributed by Raymond Yow