Cheap Cookies
It’s bad enough to walk in a convenience store clad in lycra, but here I was, strolling down the aisles of a 7-11 in my click-clacking cycling shoes looking for a bargain. I was on the hunt for something that was inexpensive with the most taste and calories. I had a whole $5 to fund this stop on my ride and with 40 or so miles to go I thought it would be best if I had a reserve just in case; even if it meant strutting around a convenience store for a few seconds longer!
I came across a sweet pack of chocolate and vanilla cookies. They were 7-11s own brand…who knew they made cookies? And cheap cookies! I snagged a pack for a mere 99 cents and went on my merry way. I had exactly what I thought I needed. The outcome of the rest of my ride was in my hands and it cost less than a dollar!
Except this particular bike ride was not cheap. It was anything but until I found my 99 cent cookies. I had committed to doing a long ride and for me a “long ride” means 4 hours or more perched on a tiny bike seat. But I usually love that saddle time. It’s great thinking time and when I get my legs going and brain functioning I usually have something good to share with my family. Or you guys. Or whoever. But this particular ride was wet. It was humid. My skin was a dirt and grime attractant. My sparkly white socks looked destined to a pale grey life thereafter. My hand slid around on the handlebars. It was a challenge to stay out there. I wanted to say I did a long ride but find the easy way home.
Throughout the miles I kept riding past the roads that would take me home the quicker way. The easier way. The cleaner way. There was a thread of hope that I could endure and get to the magical distance I set out to do.
I shredded a sidewall of my tire with 30 miles to go and stopped and patched that up with some gorilla tape. A few miles later the battery that powers the shifting on my bike decided to conk out and stop working. So I pedaled on in a single gear. A single gear out of my potential 22. Long rides were not supposed to be this way! Sunshine, tailwinds, and clean socks were not happening on this adventure. It was costly.
When I swung onto my road and meandered up my driveway I was greeted by my wife. And blue skies and sunshine. She always asks how my ride was but really she wants to know what all I thought about. I usually have something good that really spoke to me while riding. It’s not the physical accomplishment of going a certain direction, it’s the direction felt from being in the physical accomplishment! The best thing I could tell her about was about the bargain cookies I found at the 7-11.
The cheap cookies were in sharp contrast to the rest of the ride. They tasted good…for a little while. They gave me a shot of energy…for a few miles. They were inexpensive enough that by my own understanding I could save some money “just in case” I needed something else down the road. It probably would have been better to buy something a little more robust and feel better longer.
The ride was costly and yet I chose to keep going. I wasted a pair of socks. My drivetrain needed some serious love to extract all the dirt and grit mashed into the gears over 100 miles. I had to replace a tire and recharge a battery. I had to rely on the hope that my experience would make a difference and was worth the struggle. If nothing else I would grow through the experience.
So my answer to Jan was that the ride was good despite it not being what I envisioned. And what I learned mirrors life these days. It’s sometimes costly to go where we need to go and live the way we are called to live. It’s dirty. Gritty. It stretches our faith, especially when things don’t go to plan. My socks are definitely not bright white any longer! But going cheap isn’t the best way either. Always looking for the cheap cookies is easy and inexpensive. Going cheap seems safe. It seems to make sense. It’s leaves something on the table “just in case”. It costs us less so therefore it has to be better! But in the long run, or ride, we end up revisiting a similar dilemma! There’s not a whole lot of growth in those cheap cookies.
There’s always a time and place for those 99 cent cookies but I don’t want to live like them. There’s a cost to living life with purpose and passion. Don’t go cheap!
