The Way of the Master

“Mastery is not about perfection. It’s about a process. A journey. A master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try and fail and try again for as long as he lives.” – George Leonard, ‘Mastery’

Just as Rick and I were rolling away from the makeshift gas station, the attendant yelled to us. I looked his way; he had a phone receiver in his hand. He motioned that the call was for me. Me? It could only be one person. I hit the kill switch, walked over and took the phone…hoping. “Santana! Are you okay? What happened?” “Oh Larry, I have big problems. I fell down in the river. The engine was full of water…” 

In over 40 years of riding, Santana had never fallen down crossing a river. Today was his day. A front wheel bouncing off a boulder you can’t see will do it. His whole body was underwater – helmet and all. The bike was completely submerged. He had to drag it out of the river. The oil had water in it. He worked on it some but had no oil with him. He had no choice but to baby the bike 30 miles back to San Ignacio and hope the engine didn’t blow up. He called Andrew to come back to get him with the truck. Then he called this little place where we found gas.

“How did you know we were here?” I asked him. “I know,” he said. Amazing. He had the phone number of this bootlegger’s little hole in the wall in his phone. He knew we’d need gas, and he knew this was the only place to get it. His local knowledge had just saved us over 200 miles of riding. His call was just in time and I wanted to hug him!

Rick and I went back to plan A – get to Loreto – about 90 miles to go. We rode a few miles out of town along a beautiful remote coastline and surfer paradise, where the course turned into the desert once again. The rocks began. First making their presence known gently, then more aggressively.

Riding a dirt bike. Fun, right? Well, in this context, nothing is easy. And that’s how life is. Everything is fun and interesting at first. But then it becomes repetitive; a grind, no fun. But to master something, you have to stick in there when it becomes work. You’ve got to want it more than you don’t. When nobody is watching, day in and day out, you’ve got to practice. You’ve got to stick with “the practice,” of doing your work, and improving.

The Master does it for the practice. The practice IS the reason. 

If I am to finish this race, I need to finish it before I start it.