It's about a year old. I'm linking it because it describes the very antithesis of what I want in this blog, or for my life.
The BBC News item talks about Mamils--Middle-Aged Males In Lycra. According to the article, those men are trying to fight back the passage of time--and divert themselves from the mundanness of their lives--with expensive racing bikes and overpriced team bike wear.
What I am going to say next may seem to reflect my own biases as a cyclist. I'd say it's better--for those men and for everyone else--that they're riding bikes, even if they're over the top, rather than squiring around girls half their age in sports cars. For one thing, cycling is better for their health, even if they're not climbing Mont Ventoux. For another, a man who has the discipline to train and who will ride long distances or intense sprints, let alone up mountains, can be something of a role model to his kids and others in his life.
Plus, as expensive as the bikes and team kit are, they're still far less expensive than new red convertibles or services rendered, if you know what I mean.
The only real problem I have with men like that is that many of them leave their wives alone on weekends and at other times. Then again, men (and not only those in midlife crises) do the same thing, and worse things, when they abscond with their female accessories in their racy new cars. For that matter, golf, fishing and any number of activities in which men engage leave a lot of lonely wives in their wake.
Still, I'm glad I didn't become a MAMIL. Why do you think I'm Justine, and not Nick, now? ;-) Perhaps now I can call myself a MAWRIH--a Middle Aged Woman Riding In Heels.
