HUMILITY

The Turkish folk poet and Islamic Sufi mystic Yunus Emre wrote that “Wisdom comes from knowing one-self’’ and “Know thyself” was the order carved at the entrance of the Delphi Pan-Hellenic sanctuary, the site of the omphalos, the ‘navel of the world’.

“Knowing ourselves” is, and it always was, the source of knowledge and the foundation for wisdom. From our academic experience, we all know how difficult and demanding is the acquisition of knowledge; nevertheless, we underestimate the difficulties in knowing the self, in truly understanding who we are.

We prefer to identify who we are with what we would like to be, with the self who may attract others. “Intelligent, attractive, positive, friendly and trustable are, in general, the qualities we attribute to our real self.

• I make a show of my competence, I boost my experience, I create my history and my reality, and I postpone the “Know thyself” work to older times. I forget (sometimes I despise) the first virtue to real knowledge, to the knowledge of the self: humility.

In a society worshipping success, winners, lucky profiteers, violent tycoons and one-million bloggers, humility is not a popular virtue, being humble is seen as a sign of weakness, sometimes a mark of stupidity. Being “ambitious” (the opposite of humble) is now registered as a good trait in any CV.

Still, humility is the real way, the effective tool, and the foundation virtue of knowledge.

The term “humility” comes from the Latin word humilitas, a noun related to humus (earth , ground) as in “grounded”, or “from the earth”. Being humble is to keep your feet on the ground, to maintain a direct and strong connection with the basics.

• ‘’Humility is the knowledge that no matter how smart or expert we are, we can always learn from others. Humility is the skill of listening intently to others. It is the awareness that how self-assured you are about your compass, you are vulnerable under stress or certain contexts’’(Nitin Nohria)

Humility contains two elements: the first is to keep your feet on the ground continuously verifying your position; the second one is to be able to put yourself in someone’s shoes, trying to look at reality from a different point of view; as if one were the other person; to sympathize, empathise.

In the first area humility is a potent engine for competence and confidence: as knowledge expands the person with “feet on the ground” realises that the area of unknown expands as well and that more work is needed. The quote from humble Socrates is now a must:

• “The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing”

Being humble with the self, and recognizing that we still have knowledge and experience to acquire is not sufficient. Humility impose as well a moral code, a way to deal with other and with understanding, charity and love.

In the second area, by putting ourselves in someone’s shoes, we share not only her/his vision but, more important, her/his feeling.

It is the way to acquire knowledge not from books but from relationships, from other people’s experiences.

When it comes to biking, humility reveals the full power:

• Knowing the personal limits in knowledge and experience
• Maintaining the ride within the limits
• Acquiring experience and knowledge constantly, at any opportunity

The humble biker is, at the same time a sympathetic rider and an empathetic one. By knowing and showing his real self she/he will ride competently, attentive to learn in a process of continuous education, taking the best indication from the companions of ride, listening to their experience and expanding what is communicated not only to biking’s technique but to whole life.

He/she will become a reference point for the group in humility creating sympathy–attraction and therefore expanding the common knowledge and the right attitude.

By being humbly attentive to the needs, the questions and the feeling of peers he/she demonstrate and exercise empathy contributing to the level of joy in the ride.

Humility is the way of learning. And learning makes us more confident.

As evident proof of the power of humility, we should consider what a “superior attitude” leads to.

• Here we can take advantage from the Dunning-Kruger effect, whereby one believes that he is superior in his thought process and knowledge yet oblivious to his unawareness and ignorance.

Dunning and Kruger’s studies evinced that incompetent performers are usually unable to recognize the skill and competence levels of other people, which is part of the reason why they view themselves as better and more capable than others.

On the contrary, experts, in any subject, tend to ‘know what they don’t know’; they are more aware of gaps or weaknesses in their knowledge.

Experts understand, in humility, the complexities in their field that a person (without humility) with superficial knowledge in that area would most likely overlook as unimportant.

Finally, have the humility to be human. Humility is a source of joy since it teaches us not to take ourselves and our game too seriously making it complicated, transforming education and knowledge into a business game for profit. “Taking too seriously “is often covered by a call to professionalism, to be expert and competent, to know and use the last of technology; without humility we forget that competence and knowledge are just tools for sharing and loving, professionalism is just a media for unity.

Without humility, we ignore the fact that being “good at” is just a position of service to others and not glory to the self.

Without humility in our hearts and minds, we kill the joy when destroying the fantasy, introducing useless rules designed to protect the idiots; in this way, we transform a group of friends into a small replica of decadent parliaments, a bunch of rider’s companions into an organized-group-ride parading, we change a simple game into a complicated event.

Biking is simple and humble things, it is joyful: we need to learn how to ride well with humility, we have to share our experiences with riders with joy, we have to congregate with joy and we have to talk among bikers with humility and joy.