Essay: Like back then, but better
Can you remember being given your first wellies and finally having permission to splash around in puddles? The freedom of heading into your garden as a toddler for an adventure with your best friend, but the subsequent realisation that mud doesn’t taste as good as expected? What about that time you weed in a watering can or that week in which you were a police officer, then a hook-sporting pirate and then an astronaut?
As a child you were in awe of everything around you, the tall trees, the falling leaves and the wind on your face. Stroking a cat was the height of excitement. You wanted to touch everything, and your emotions ran loose, completely unburdened. There was no one else you had to be–other than yourself. Free. At ease. But as we all get older, we often lose the ability to just be, forgetting how to follow our intuition. Our gaze is fixed on the phone just centimetres from our face and we don’t see where we’re putting our feet. Headphones drown out life’s ambient noise, drawing audible curtains around us, and your thoughts flitter to Whatsapp despite being sat at the dining room table with company. At work we react with defiance, a show of strength is what’s needed, even though we know that admitting a weakness is a real sign of strength. Everything should have a designated goal, efficient and effective. Every employee is valued with regards to ROIs and KPIs; it all has a purpose. Simply doing something isn’t enough. We turn vegan to save animals. Use electronic vehicals to protect the environment and go running to keep in shape. What happened to doing something purely because you want to?
Everything needs a deeper sense of purpose even if our understanding only lets us scratch the surface of why. Everything has to be professional, well-thought-out and able to play out as planned – but chaos can be underrated. We control our feelings, suppress our emotions and forget who we are in the process.
eMTBs unlock the opportunity to break free. They bring us out into the wild, stoking our drive for fun and adventure. They lend us the confidence to get up the steepest ramps, a firm support just like your parents provided. They supply you with the power to explore, a sensation that is so often sapped by everyday life.
They’re hybrids; they operate on a human-machine plane, and are the best tool to repair the ties between humans and nature. eMTBs don’t get boring. Take one direction today, tomorrow go elsewhere. Alone, with friends, with your olds, your kids or even your grandparents. To a beer garden or up into the mountains? You pick the rules. But don’t be swayed by pragmatism or sobriety. Let intuition be your muse – just like back then, but better. Unlike back then you’re no longer under your parents’ supervision and you can make your own decisions. And for the record, there are no rules against adults getting dirty.
So have fun dancing, running riot and exploring!
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Words: Robin Schmitt Photos: Manfred Schmitt, Christoph Bayer
