How you doin?
There is so much bizarreness in the World right now. It has been 10 days since our (the SX MX community) really felt the press of the COVID-19 reality. Raise your hand if that 10 days really feels like a complete off-season already. My hand is at full extension.
Last week there was still a lot of discussion on how the SX season may be continued following it’s abrupt halt, now, mere days later, with the bevy of government (both State and Federal) injunctions put in place, race discourse has taken a backseat. We’re coming to grips with the reality that for all our advanced society has accomplished, Mother Nature always wins. Man has spent generations attempting to harness and control as much as possible in an effort to maximize efficiency and maintain progress but this Virus has shown that the sustainability of life is just as out of our control as it was at the beginning of Cro-Magnon. We haven’t so much developed means to save life but to delay death. The fact that in as simplified terms as availed to us, we are locked in our homes hiding from Creeping Death (always nice to drop a Metallica reference) shows we are pretty much cavemen. Like they used to say in the sports we watched on TV, defense wins Championships; and this tactic enforced upon us by the powers that be, is based wholly upon Defense.
It bums me out a little, though I am not surprised, that the Government had to take the steps to keep us in our homes. We are an evolved species who does not recognize the frailty of our mortality without a lot of arm twisting. When our Michigan governor shut down schools the Friday prior to Indianapolis SX, I took it seriously and began a shelter at home program for our family right then. No one in my house smokes or is elderly or is health compromised but that’s not the point; when the goal is to lessen the spread, you lead by example. I do NOT watch the news because just like every other day of the week when there is no COVID-19, all the News outlets do is instill fear and a sense of unrest. What’s the fucking point? Stay in your house, out of harms way, and be part of the solution. It’s not going to come as fast as we would all prefer but the more of us who stay home, the quicker it runs it’s course. Reciprocally, you could continue venturing out and leave us in this new dystopian reality for a year or more.
It’s also a very ironic time. We happen to live in a school district that REALLY has their shit together and my boys are on a consistent regimen of classwork that is not light but also totally manageable and leaves us plenty of time to get out in the yard on the dirt bikes, playing Monopoly at night… I mean it’s a real throwback. Even though the internet is still there, we do our best to get back to the fundamentals that held value prior to it. So even while the World seems a little crazy, being out here, other than hearing 3rd hand and tightening the belt a little, life is good.
To hear MX Sports announce the National schedule really did feel pretty comforting, like Weege noted on this weeks Weege Show. Premature? Probably, but it’s little cues such as that that give us something to focus on and hope to grasp in the future, that keep optimism alive.
I applaud DC and the MX Sports crew for making the announcement and hope that pioneering heads-up approach is looked at in hindsight, the same way that Ken Roczen’s announcement to forego dealer signings is now: Smart.
Supercross is still all silence with only theories and small talk solutions volleyed about. The news this week of Feld laying off 90% of it’s workforce was a shock to read but I can’t say I see any other way around it with the uncertainty enveloping their specific industry more than most.
With the last 10 days feeling like 3 months, I’m hoping the next week brings more of a sense of the roadmap this deal will follow so the uncertainty lessens a little. As I said last week, it’s the unknown that really kills spirit. Some answers followed by more well developed plans will go a long way.
Enjoy your family and above ALL, maintain candor and don’t envelope yourselves in News or Facebook nonsense. See through the bullshit and focus on what is in front of you. Literally.
