Knowing, Nike, Perfection, and Just Doing It

So I'm motoring down Hwy 99W on my Harley, enjoying a perfect day for riding – (though yesterday was more perfect J, yes, there is an inside joke there) – when suddenly the rear end of the scooter goes into a skid toward oncoming traffic. Well, the old sphincter puckers, I muscle a turn into the skid and apply the front brakes and accelerate to right slide, and it works way too well and I'm now skidding toward the right shoulder. I pretty much do the same thing again, i.e., turn into the skid, and since there is no oncoming traffic, there is no need to apply front brake and accelerate to enhance the correction. I fishtail out of danger, slow, come to stop on the shoulder. I HATE controlling skids on a motorcycle, especially when the rear end just does not behave like it should!

I've been riding motorcycles for a large portion of my fifty years, and I've never had an explosive flat on the rear tire before today. So that's why the rear end behaved so poorly <blink, blink>. After five or ten minutes my sphincter un-puckered enough to let go of the seat, I started breathing, and either my heart finally started beating again or it simply slowed down. My perfect day was no longer, but I did spend the night in…

That wasn't a sea story, and unfortunately, I have a rear tire to repair this weekend. It is however a story that exemplifies the kinds of experience I not only tend to enjoy (in hindsight), but also helps to explain my fascination with philosophy, religion, and just generally being contrary. Danger that brushes up against my mortality spurs me on to re-examinations of my beliefs. Today, it brought to mind a conversation Gravebinder and I had earlier in the day on the nature of perfection. Though we disagreed on the nature of perfection, the conversation raised certain flags for me concerning epistemology – elements of that branch of philosophy I thought I had quite settled…

I realize that to most people understanding the nature of knowledge, i.e., what it is, how it is acquired, and what people actually know is beyond boring. In fact, most people probably disdain the study of any of the five major branches of philosophy, but it does provide foundational material for conversations on the nature of perfection… I mean really, can some perfect thing become "more" perfect? Is the answer to the question obvious? It's a conversation that occurs in philosophy, religion, and BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT, ETC! Nifty, hey?

Maybe I'll just stick with poetry and politics and not be concerned with how I know about these subjects <grin> of course, process is important and perhaps Nike is right:

The Goddess Nike On Performance Anxiety

Her lover said:

Tell me how, tell me where
Tell me when, talk me through
And tell me you came too

Tell me that I know how
To put that look upon your face
That in any other time or place
People would confuse with pain

She said:

Don’t talk unless you talk hard
Don’t ask unless you wanna know
The answers that I have, but oh!

God, don’t tell me what or how and when
But God! Just whisper. Then moan!
Sweet Jesus! Then groan!
Don’t talk, don’t stop, but oh God, Just Do It!