Ode to the 18

I've often thought on this trip
"Man, I wish I had an 18 (tooth cog)"
As I flip back and forth between the 17 and 19 tooth cogs; one is just a little too hard, the other just a little too easy.
Just call me Goldilocks, I guess.

But longin' fer the 18 is like longin' fer the good old Colonial days, back when the 13 "original" British(/French/Spanish/Dutch) colonies were sore about their "taxation without representation" reality - and the "glory days" of "the Boston tea party". No one HERE is goin' back to bein' just "colonies", believe you me.

It's like longin' fer "the Constitution", in abstract, without knowing a single one of the Amendments to that Constitution; without recognizing that "the Founding Fathers" KNEW that the times would change, that they and their document were NOT perfect, that a way to adapt and update it was vital. When "the Constitution" was read on the House floor after the recent Congressional election, "the 'tea party' revolution of 2010" - they DID NOT READ the part of the Constitution that the Founding Fathers wrote into it about "slaves being counted as 3/5 of a person" for the census - to make sure Southern, slave states would pass it - giving them more Representatives in Congress than they would have gotten based only on "land owning white males". So when people like that make a big public spectacle about loving "the Constitution" and being "strict originalists" and being "pure" and say they'll "never compromise on my/our principles" - are they saying they want slavery to make a comeback? That they want black men to not be able to vote? (Whoa. That's a little "close to home". Apparently some "tea party Republicans" ARE currently saying that!) That they want women to not be able to vote? (Can you say "Equal pay for equal work"? Congress can't!) Do they want to undo all the Amendments to the Constitution, go ALL the way back? (Should I assume that they know the first 10 Amendments, known collectively as "the Bill of Rights", were passed WITH the Constitution? Probably not, eh?)

Longin' fer the 18 is like longin' fer the days of "the Confederacy", that brief period in "American" history when "the South was 'free'". It ain't gonna happen, no matter how proudly the Confederate flag (or state flag with the Confederate flag embedded in it) is flown, no matter how sweet the thought might be (for some [white] "Southerners".)

So you can be sure that when I say "I long for the 18 tooth cog" that I don't have on my cassette today - I only mean it "in theory". While I would love to have the 18 - and would use it a lot - there is no way that I would be willing to give up the 24 and 27 tooth cogs that I now have to get the 18 back. The 18 was good, the 18 IS good. But the "amended" cassette that I now have on my bike, while not perfect, is a better cassette for me today, a better real world compromise for the real world riding that I am doing, today.

Long live the 18!

But God bless my 27...