When i was young i went to a careers evening at my school.
My Dad took me on the Back of his bike. An Impetuously purchased big red Ducati. It was excellent,we arrived in overly waxed cotton suits and disrobed into an untidy pile near the elegant coats of the other families attending.
I remember going to a talk, thats what these things have, people who talk about different careers, anyway we went to listen to a guy talk about advertising.
Even from the beginning you couldnt hear him
There was a strip light buzzing above
It went on for a couple of minutes
The room
agitated but paralysed
So my Dad stands up and says that it was useless to continue and that in truth no one could possibly be able to give the man the attention he deserved(though i suspect he doubted that)
and despite the mans protestations , and suggestions that it was up to the caretakers to do it, my Dad stood on the Table in his Frank Thomas racing boots and proceeded to take the lamp out of the fitting.
I remember at the time wishing that i would be swallowed up , i was so embarrassed, but in time , in fact in the intervening 17 years i have looked back on that evening with the knowledge that what i was most ashamed of was my own fear of standing up.
Roger Moss is far from perfect. He knows that better than any but he has an unusual quality and one that i do not see very often in people. He has a passion for life, and what can be achieved within it .honestly.
I am not sorry in truth that he failed to be elected.
I would like him to concetrate on riding and working in his beloved workshop and spending too much time on the phone talking to people.
I think that there is a lesson to him in this.
He as an Engineer has always tended towards the logical solutions of situations,at least in most cases!
People are not governed by these laws and though he knows that, he is unwilling to accept in his enthusiasm that the development of possibilities in anything should not be a universal desire.
It is interesting to read the comments of the anonymous writer who seemed unhappy at the heavy racing element of yowl in previous days, and the inference that my dads Scott lacked originality(in fact it is probably the most original Scott in the club, theres certainly not another one like it!! )
The comments carried an abrasive quality, a feeling of resentment maybe.certainly a conviction that the regular membership was unhappy with this kind of coverage.
Not everyone wants change or even reminding of its presence!
certainly not everyone commends those who carry its flag
and though they might vote this desire(if indeed that is either accurate or fair to suggest )
but if that is what this is about
then i just suggest
the obvious
that you cant hold back the tide
cos like it or not
change,
that is,
thats what this whole world time life thing is about.
Its constant change
and you either live trying to deny that
(and with so much change around us coupled with a seemingly general inclination for most toward sentimentality, i can really understand the desire to keep something that seems to remain unaffected)
or accept it and you learn to swim
and please do not think that i intend to patronise in this
you see
im only just really starting to see that it is surely only in accepting the possibility of change, that you can be a part of it. Otherwise it is just something that will happen to you like it or not.
as a postscript to this, when i got back from the careers evening, i found that every single leaflet i had picked up had got sucked out of the leg of my overtrousers on the rapid ride home.
That must be why i still dont know!
regards
Richard Moss
a longtime Friend and alltime son of Rogers!
(very temporarily living where i can see the whole of the Night time Manhattan skyline…fantastic!)
.
