Is Bragging A Sin?

December 1, 2023

A Cyclist Visits the Church of the Great Outdoors Confession Booth

Bless me. It has been three months since my last cycle touring journal. That's a pretty long time for me to abstain from bragging about my amazing cycling exploits. I need to get out there again to ride, show off, and brag.

So yes, I CONFESS! I am a huge braggart. In fact, I'm SUCH a huge braggart that I just bragged about how I like to brag.

When I re-read my bike touring journals (and my cooking blog too), that's how I really do see myself. In my head, the words I see are reduced to things like: "Look at me!" "Look what I did today." "Look what I did after that." "Look at the cool places where I'm riding my bike." "See how well I handle adversity?" "Look at my nice pictures." "Make sure you notice my old-school cycling gear and paper maps." "Check out my smarty-pants observations and opinions." "See how I write about it all?" "See how I maximize jokes and absurdity at the expense of quality, seriousness and honest feelings?"

Unfortunately, it's too late to go back in time and magically scrub the blowhard tough guy images out of all my previous journals and rewrite them to portray something closer to how I'd like to be seen--just a humble bike tourist who does what he does without feeling the need to boast about it.

I Blame the Internet

For decades, I wrote journals of all my automobile, backpacking, canoeing, and bicycling travels. Nobody ever saw them but me, and I was fine with that. I just knew I'd get a kick out of rereading them in the future.

When I retired from working life and started planning my first multi-week bike tour, I learned about something different. People were not only writing journals, but they went a step further. They posted about their travels publicly.

"Hey, I could do that," I thought to myself.

True, I COULD do that, but I wasn't sure if I SHOULD do that. Self-doubt set in. What if my writing isn't as good as I think it is? What if the things I find humorous don't work for the general public? Why should anybody care about what I'm doing? What if the places I go aren't all that interesting to others? What if I put myself out there and I become a colossal failure and the subject of ridicule? What if everything I write looks like bragging?

I managed to overcome all those bad thoughts. That was the beginning of my descent into the self-promotion game. I went ahead and posted my first bike trip on Blogspot. I told a few people about it, and now I curse them for stoking my ego with compliments. But that gave me the confidence to post subsequent journals for the more discerning bike touring crowd on Crazyguyonabike and then Cycleblaze.

Honestly, though, I've come to embrace the bragging for the whole world to see. Bragging has become my schtick, and if you continue to read this thing, you'll be seeing a lot more of it.

Modest Bragging About the Weather I'll Be Facing

My December tour a couple years ago included an 18-inch snowstorm. I'm not going to provide a link to my Cycleblaze journal of that trip because I'm trying to be modest in my self-promotion. (You could look it up yourself, though, if you are interested in that kind of self-promotionality.) The tour was exciting though. I'll just leave it at that.

With the right attitude, snow can be pretty fun to ride in. It's more difficult, however, to find the fun in very cold temperatures. Oh yeah, Minnesota's coldest temperatures are in January. Generally, most of January is below freezing, and it sometimes falls below zero-degrees (F) for more than a week at a time. By the way, below zero Fahrenheit is different than below zero in the Celsius world.

It took less than a minute to find the relevant statistics.

Minnesota has some pretty cold winter weather, but does it have the absolute WORST weather in the lower 48 states? That's another thing I had to look up on the internet.

On this website, Minnesota only ranked #2. Congrats to North Dakota for your awful weather.

This poll gave Minnesota the number #1 ranking it deserves.

No matter which weather website I looked at, Minnesota always ranked in the top five. Who am I to argue with that?

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Graham SmithPope Gregory I wish you all the best on your frozen pedaling pilgrimage. My knee joints have locked in protest at the mere thought of cycling in ice and snow. I cannot imagine ever trying such a tour, but I’ll eagerly read about your icy tour from the warmth of the southern hemisphere.
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11 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Graham SmithLord Graham, I thank you, as always, for your comments. In the same way as you can't imagine a wintertime tour my part of the world, I cannot imagine riding across your hot continent at ANY time of the year. I'd like to though--for the wildlife alone.
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11 months ago

Andrea BrownThat was the most Minnesotan thing I’ve ever read, worrying about bragging but not really 😂. Full disclosure: Bruce is from MN and can express similar contradictions. I grew up in a family of ten, and “You’re just trying to get attention” was a stock shaming phrase. My response nowadays: “Damn straight I am.”
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11 months ago

Keith AdamsI had an uncle who spent many decades living and working in and around Bethel, Alaska. After he retired he moved to rural Minnesota where, he opined, the winters were far colder and harder to endure.

You go, Greg! I'll follow vicariously from the comfort of my recliner in Maryland, draped with blankets, fortified with warm beverages, and with a cozy fire going.
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11 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Andrea BrownYou're absolutely right that this whole page is very Minnesotan. I didn't think of it that way when I wrote it, but I can see it now. I'm not a native Minnesotan, but it seems that insincere "Minnesota nice" thing snuck up on me when I wasn't looking. Also, sometimes when I hear my voice in some of my videos, it sounds like the "Minnesota accent" has also snuck up on me.

I knew Bruce had Minnesota roots, which includes being a St. Olaf alumnus. (GO OLEs!) I should mention, it was his last comment on the "Cycleblaze Stalker" forum topic--the one where he said he kept handwritten journals for 40 years--that got me to thinking about the real reasons for going public with my own journaling.
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11 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Keith AdamsPeople always think of Alaska as being like Siberia. Where most of the Alaskans live--along the coasts--the climate is actually quite temperate, even in winter. But I'd be the first to admit that the unpopulated interior areas of Alaska probably get much colder temperatures than my state.
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11 months ago

Bruce LellmanTo Gregory GarceauGregory, It's not really the most Minnesotan thing ever because a Minnesotan would never even utter the word 'brag'. But they would secretly think about it.

If one were to read my CycleBlaze profile, my first sentence is, "I emigrated from Minnesota to Portland, Oregon in 1982 to improve upon my winters." I used the word 'emigrated' because Minnesota seems to have a culture all its own - the other reason I left! No one talks. You are obviously not a native Minnesotan but my entire family is still there not talking. It's like their voices are frozen but only for certain topics that can't be talked about. It drove me nuts and to Oregon I went where I can be myself, talk about anything with anyone and brag away. But I do love Minnesota and even miss it for brief moments every year or two. I miss going to the annual lutefisk dinner with my brother at the biggest congregation Lutheran church in the U.S. And canoeing, I really miss that, and speaking my native ojibwa tongue of course. But I would never dream of riding my bike in a Minnesota winter. I can't wait to read all about it while I swelter in SE Asia.
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11 months ago

Bruce LellmanTo Gregory GarceauThe last time my brother and I ate lutefisk together at that big Lutheran church in Mpls. I filmed it with a Kodak Playsport. That was almost exactly 12 years ago. Andrea edited it and put it to great, local, Scandinavian music. I think you would really enjoy it.

Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeMTCzKEPPM

It's a little hard to hear the dialogue. The Kodak Playsport was one of the first phone-sized video cameras.
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11 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Bruce LellmanNow THAT was the most Minnesotan thing I've ever seen. From the friendly faces, to the stereotypical church basement, to all the white and beige food (even rutabaga), to the snowy parking lot--it was an amazing video. Thanks for sharing it.

My mom was 100 Swede and Lutheran (not Minnesotan though), so I got to attend quite a few of those church suppers in Upper Michigan and Iowa. Whenever she'd come to the Twin Cities, she always liked to go to St. Olaf Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis. I assumed that was the one you were referring to when you mentioned the largest Lutheran congregation in the U.S. I see I was wrong about that.
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11 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Gregory GarceauI meant to say my mom was 100 PERCENT Lutheran and Swede, not 100 Lutheran and Swede.
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11 months ago

Bruce LellmanTo Gregory GarceauThat Lutheran church is on 50th. I think it's Mount Olivet Lutheran. I was told 12 years ago it was the biggest congregation Lutheran church in MN but who knows.
If you should watch that video again maybe use headphones so you can hear everything being said. Plus, at the very end, after the music stops and the snow if falling, you can hear the faint sounds of geese flying south in the snowstorm. I love how Andrea edited the video footage I came home with. Thanks for watching.
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11 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Bruce LellmanI agree, Andrea did a great job with the editing. I Googled "Largest Lutheran congregations in the U.S." and Mt. Olivet was right there . . . at #2. Apparently, a church in Des Moines, IA (of all places) has overtaken them for the top spot.
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11 months ago

Bruce LellmanTo Gregory GarceauIt's the old Minnesota - Iowa rivalry at play once again!!
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11 months ago

Rachael AndersonI guess I can’t complain about bicycling in 50 degree weather.
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11 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Rachael AndersonNo need to complain about that. Fifty degrees is the beautiful temperature that exists between the beautiful temperatures of Zero degrees and one hundred degrees.
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11 months ago