Ted-terview: Guitar Ted Gets Interviewed: Part 2

 I mentioned in last week's FN&V that I had been interviewed by Haley Hunter-Smith and that it was a rather revealing interview. I have been given the green light to share the interview with you here on the blog.

This was/is a part of a research effort by the Queen's University and was an interview conducted by Haley Hunter-Smith with myself via a Zoom call. The transcript was then sent to me about one week later. 

I don't plan on sharing the entire interview, and this will be the last post- most likely- to get through. I am going to lightly edit the interview for clarity and readability. 

The research was done in an effort to find out from many different individuals what the "Spirit of Gravel" might entail, why, or if it is important to preserve, and what- if anything- can be gained from that for future race directors, gravel enthusiasts, and more. 

Part 2: The Spirit Of Gravel

In this part of the interview, I get into my views on the "Spirit of Gravel" and what that means to me. 

Haley Hunter-Smith: I was going to ask this later on, but you've...we're kind of going in this direction right now. Anyway, so do you think that you are - are you able to articulate partly, or in full what you think
the spirit of gravel is? Or would, should we revisit that later?

Guitar Ted: No, I'm always ready to talk about that! First of all, I think that a lot of people get hung up by that word "spirit". You know, so much of Western culture isn't spiritual. They don't understand, I don't think, what they're even talking about, but that's a big part of the gravel scene. The spiritual nature of it. 

So people get connected to nature through being out in the in the back country, or, you know, rural areas. And it does change you to a degree, I think the more time you spend in nature, I think that's definitely a spiritual thing, and it's something that doesn't get talked a lot about, because you know, there's… You get a little bit too touchy feely about spiritual things, and some people are gonna back away from that. 

So when I hear the term "spirit of gravel", I always kind of smirk, because I wonder if people really understand what that means. Or have you been considering what that might mean? And so to me, um, all throughout my career, putting on events, the spiritual nature of what I was trying to accomplish was very important to me. I wanted people to be touched in that way, and be changed in that way, and I thought that- my hypothesis was that - If you put people in in a stressful situation where they're broken down physically and mentally, that they're more open to that kind of thing. So I found that to be true for a lot of people that participated in my events, and I think that's true for a lot of people who do gravel. 

But again, this is something that not a lot of people talk about. I think when people talk about the spirit of gravel, more often than not, they're talking about what their version of it is, and they want to protect that, you know. And so it comes down to things like, how, how are my events run technically. And how do I want to see my competition, you know, presented, or how do I want to be included? Or, you know, it comes down to things like that which I don't think… That's not necessarily this. A spiritual thing. That's more or less a cultural thing, you know. So I think that's all mixed up in this term. And my feeling is a lot of people don't really understand what they're talking about.

HHS: Okay, that's a unique perspective. I quite enjoyed that. So you you talk… you did mention that, so you, in your view gravel is a spiritual experience, and you mentioned that that is something that a lot of Western culture doesn't think about, we're not particularly spiritual. So is this… Do you have other experiences in sport? And is this spiritual aspect of it something unique to the gravel experience? Can you contrast those at all?

GT: Well, I think that if you're open to spiritual things and ideas, that if you participate in, it doesn't have to be cycling even. I mean, I'm sure people have had, you know, spiritual experiences running or rock climbing or wrestling, you know for that matter. It's, it's... or just walking. You know, out in nature. Obviously, there's spiritual houses of worship and things like that. So I think that, um, you know we don't have, you know, a hold of that idea 100% for gravel riding. It goes across all kinds of things.

 But you know, going back to my personal experience with it. I had done some self-supported cycle touring in the nineties. The thing that I always go back to is there was this particular day in the middle of South Dakota when I was dropped by my 2 companions and I couldn't see them anymore. And it was, it was probably a 100 mile day. We were crazy doing these 100 mile days, and I was very broken down mentally and physically at that point in time. I had a spiritual experience on the bike, and I thought that, uh, looking back on it, that was a very pivotal point in my life. That kind of sent my life off in a different direction because of that situation, and I thought more people should have the opportunity to experience that, than just myself. And so that was part of the motivation, for how I did my events, to kind of put people in those situations where they might come across that same experience that I did. 

But I think that, you know, I'm not unique in that sense. I think, you know, there's many people who have expressed feelings and ideas that I hear, and I read, and I'm like, “Yeah, that's, uh, that's pretty much where I came from as well. So, you know, by no means do I have a lock on what the spirit of gravel is, I think it's, it's an individual thing and unique across many different people that you know, they're gonna come to it in different ways, and express it in different ways. 

I think that's something that is there. And again, you know, being that we're, you know, more about, “If I can't touch it, it doesn't exist”, that kind of thing where Western culture is a lot like that. I think that it becomes very difficult for us to express those ideas. Where I think that comes a lot more naturally to other parts of the world. People from other parts the world go, "Well, yeah, of course, you know that's something that exists. And it's real, and we get it, you know". So I think that it's, it's very fascinating to me to see people in athletic competitions, or just riding, bike packing, you know, where you're just out there, and they come away from it with, you know, being changed in that way.  I enjoy that part of the scene.

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Thank you to Haley Hunter-Smith for that great interview and the permission to share part of that with you all here. There is a lot more, she interviewed me for an hour, but much of that is about Trans Iowa and I've beaten that horse to death here. Plus I gave some thoughts on the big-time gravel scene as well. But, I think this was the most important stuff here which I have shared. 

If there is enough interest, I may post more. For now- Thanks again for reading!