The other day I was trying to make a loop out of a ride in a canyon area.
This caused me to return on a paved highway for a bit longer than I usually do, these days. In fact, I usually avoid paved roads because there are too many cars driving too fast, with drivers who are too distracted.
After returning home, I lapsed into the mid-day, deep, trance-like relaxation that always happened during my road cycling years. It had been so long that I had forgotten about it. There is nothing in this old world of ours that beats a reverie or daydream after exercise, while hearing or imagining a musical score by John Barry, Bernard Herrmann, or Patrick Doyle. It seems more restful than sleep itself, and better yet, you are conscious of it while it is happening.
How common is this trait? How would you even know? Of all the trivia and nonsense that people write about, why don't they brag up reveries like this?
Little is said about the ability or skill to be deeply affected by exercise, scenery, music, or other arts. All the glory goes to people who produce these 'products', but not to those who can intensely appreciate them. To some extent, that is fair, because more effort goes into producing than appreciating.
It raises the question of whether a person can or should consciously try to develop appreciation, or just let it happen, occasionally, when it wants to. This topic is pertinent to the vocation of traveling. Unless you place importance on your ability to appreciate travel experiences, you are soon left with the fading novelities of How Big?, How Vertical?, and How Red?
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