strategic withdrawal: any attempt to step from a why, however worthy, into whylessness
— as in going fishing without desire for fish, so that
desirelessness becomes the prey you’re catching
David James Duncan
“Strategic Withdrawal”
My Story As Told By Water 2001
I took this bike out for a stroll the other day after many moons collecting dust in the garage. It was a 30 pound single speed roll along Seward Park Ave, plodding along at 7 mph on 40 psi or less (slow leak up front) No backpack, no pump, no tools, no raincoat, no fenders, no lycra spandex. Getting some looks from the Rapha-Castelli bros mashing around the lake. I had both bike racks to myself at Chuck’s Hop Shop, before a gravel bike posse rolled up straight outta Swift’s instagram, literally, looking askance at my ‘91 RockHopper, or maybe it was my outfit ??? all wrong
Slow heavy bikes are great when you don’t have to ride uphill. The slow roll is not so much a change of scenery, just a different perspective on the same old shit, getting away from the rat race to the next train northbound-southbound-northbound repeating repeatedly. Away from the Mr McFeeley route rote rut. Away from the whys and closer to the whylessnesses.
The day after that slow roll, I was cleaning out a metric shit ton of recycling from my monumental file cabinet, when I came upon the David James Duncan essay “strategic withdrawal” from a 2001 book. It was nestled among old-older-oldest tax returns, keg receipts, Seattle Legal pay stubs and other shit I used to think was important. Someone special pointed this essay out to me in 2007 and I haven’t given it much thought since, but it jumped out at me and said “read me again, please” and as I did, it summed up my change of perspective on that slow bike ride. The this & that fit together like hand in glove or both hands in a pair of sweet gloves I found on the train one day.
You can read a revised version of the essay here
In case you didn’t know, DJD is the author of The River Why as well as several other books. So it only makes sense that why, whylessness, fish, fishing, water and rivers pop up more than once here and there in his writing. Mark your calendar 8/8/23, DJD has a new book coming out. It’s called Sun House
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