‘All of us have heard the phrase ‘saving for a rainy day’. In reality, what happens is most of us ‘save for a sunny day’. That is, wait for the stars to align, the sun to be up, the roads to be clear, the weather to be perfect, before deciding to begin something or be put a smile on our faces.’
I had rented a cycle when my nephews were here for their summer holidays and it’s almost time to return it. It served its purpose as I rented it to teach my younger nephew cycling and it was lying unused after they returned home.
This morning, I overslept and missed my yoga class and didn’t really feel like going for a run or a walk. It then struck me that the cycle was still around and I decided to take it for a spin.
When I was a kid, I loved cycling. We would cycle tirelessly and explore the neighborhood on it. I eventually outgrew what was a very old cycle and haven’t bought a cycle after that.
At some point, there was a cycling boom and many people went out and bought really fancy cycles. The cycles are a far cry from what we rode when we were kids. They come equipped with gears, are lightweight and look classier too. The temptation to buy a cycle is always there but a couple of friends who bought cycles and then let it rot in their garages scared me off. So when a company offered to rent cycles for a month, I jumped upon the opportunity to see for myself how life with a cycle will be.
I realized that buying one is easy — there’s a store opposite my home. And I can afford a decent one. But maintaining it and using it regularly is a challenge. The infrastructure on our roads is still not geared towards cyclists and most offices don’t have showers, making them an unviable option for office transport.
But none of these was on my mind when I took the cycle for a spin. The weather was beautiful and it was one of the most enjoyable rides I took on a cycle. While riding, something struck me — all of us have heard the phrase ‘saving for a rainy day’. In reality, what happens is most of us ‘save for a sunny day’. That is, wait for the stars to align, the sun to be up, the roads to be clear, the weather to be perfect, before deciding to begin something or be put a smile on our faces. While some of us may have given some thought to saving for the future and retirement (which is such a hazy term these days), most of us are saving for a sunny day by default.
Wright Thompson is one of my favorite sportswriters and his stories on some of the biggest stars in sport will move you like no other. In the foreword to his book ‘The Cost of these dreams’, he writes of his late father:
‘All his life, I heard him talk about what he and my mother would do together, about the life they’d share, once his own personal race had been run. He died before these dreams were realized, and now I know that success means reaching your goals and enjoying them and that one without the other is empty and meaningless.’
Saving up, being thrifty, not miserly, is a good way to save for the future.
But hoarding happiness and putting things off for an indefinite future is a sure-fire formula for unhappiness.
While phrases like ‘live each day like it’s your last’ provide bubble gum inspiration, they really aren’t very workable. Even if you went on your dream vacation tomorrow, odds are you will want to return to your humdrum life after a while. All or nothing may be a good approach for a beleaguered team in a sports-themed movie, not an ideal philosophy for life.
I don’t believe that any human being has cracked the code to perennial joy and happiness and I’m wary of people who claim the same. What some people have done is to figure out what gives them long-term happiness (healthy relationships, reasonable job satisfaction, building financial security) and offset it against life’s ups and downs. And some of the unhappiest people are those who are waiting for some exit path to miraculously appear and save them from their miserable lives.
The cycle ride rekindled my desire to buy a cycle, even though all the aforementioned problems with owning one still remain.
Maybe even I am saving up for a sunny day.
