Spring is fast approaching! The sun is slowly starting to burn me again when I forget sun block. My atrocious cycling tan lines are returning. I feel like being on the ocean and adrift in the swells with a good brew. Spring. It’s bursting with nothing but promise for some epic trips, terrifying but refreshingly new experiences, and equally epic moments. Though lately, I’ll candidly admit, I haven’t been at my best. So, as usual when I’m disappointed with myself, I fall back on something familiar to remind me of who I am and what I value. This morning I found myself over-caffeinated and perusing Chaucer’s General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. It sounds like quite a stretch right? Yet, that often quoted opening passage is not only wonderful, but quite apropos in describing the current state of my life, and also that little buzzing we all get in the back of our head when we smell the Jasmine blooming which tells us, “Go and play outdoors, do some crazy shit, and add some more scars to the canvas!” I’d say that alone merits a mention in the blog.
***DISCLAIMER*** For those of you that had this passage crammed down your throat by rote learning in grammar school, I’m sorry for conjuring up bad memories of evil teachers. For those of you pissed at me for not offering a translation, TOO BAD! Spend some time and figure it out, as most things worth learning or doing are not easy (or take the “millennial” way out and just Wikipedia that shit! Sad but true. Ha ha!).
Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne;
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye-
So priketh hem Nature in hir corages-
Than longen folk to go on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes….
Ok, I guess I have to explain myself now, given that it has been over 600 years since this was written and I need to convince y’all that it’s still relevant. Here goes, stay with me. I happened to notice the smell of Jasmine one warm night while at my friend’s house. We talked about how it reminded us of Spring and, even though we grew up a hundred miles apart and never knew each other until recently, I’m sure at least some of our memories overlap. Mine are of Chino Hills, stars, building bike jumps, crashing, not wearing helmets when I promised my parents I would, boogie boarding, beach runs, sunburns, camping, the ocean, beer and good stories. She and I could both tell that Spring and Summer were on the way by the life in bloom. Give Chaucer 1 point there!
Spring also makes me ambitious. I might not feel like heading down to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket, but I sure as hell have some plans for this season! I definitely want to travel to “strange shores.” I have some grand plans for last-minute road trips over a long weekend. I’d like to get out and do some longer paddles on my SUP board. I want to learn to surf, keep up on a skateboard, and maybe even jump out of a fucking plane. Nature has definitely pricked up my courage and ambition, and I hope it does for all of you too! I’d say Mr. Chaucer is spot-on again.
Chaucer’s pithy opening passage is wonderful in the sense that it has been written over and over and over again in the last six centuries, and written centuries before too. It’s constantly rewritten and relived when the days get warmer and longer by all of us. Chaucer’s panegyric to Spring reminds me that my life is most fulfilled when I’m outside with good friends. I hope some of you take the time to read a great narrative by a rad dude who died in 1400... or at least get outside and get some new scars. Happy Spring!
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