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You ever driven over the Cat and Fiddle?
I would assume nearly all members have.
Funnily enough, I’ve just driven over it now and am witting this while waiting for my two oldest sons (who have half the week with their mum).
I’ll be driving back over it again shortly.
———- And, having just scheduled this, I’m 2 1/2 hours from crossing it again when this comes out ———-
For anyone who’s reading this that’s only aware of the nursery rhyme where a dish runs away with a spoon, The Cat and Fiddle is the nickname of the road between Macclesfield and Buxton.
It comes from the Cat and Fiddle pub which is situated roughly half way (due to reopen soon under new management after four years of inactivity).
The road crosses the lower part of the pennines.
And is, therefore, rather steep in places.
You go from 600 feet above sea level in Macclesfield to 1,800 by the time you hit the pub.
But then back down to 1,000 feet by the time you hit Buxton.
While it’s mostly incline, there are some flat bits along the way.
Therefore, as I’m sure you can imagine, a variety of effort is needed from the car to get you over it.
I’ve had little competitions with myself to see how low an average mpg I can get crossing it.
You can’t just accelerate up to right speed and take your foot off the accelerator.
Gravity soon ‘kicks in’ and slows you down.
Until you stop.
And then start rolling, progressively faster, backwards.
Even on the flats you need a little bit of pressing of the accelerator or you’ll eventually roll to a stop.
And life is much the same.
When we get going we put a load of effort in to start with.
Get going nicely.
And we kinda hope that’s it.
But we find it hard to maintain that momentum.
Our enthusiasm and effort levels can wane.
‘Gravity’ kicks in and starts slowing us down and, eventually, pulling us back to where we started.
There’s a level of effort required to keep us going.
To stop us ‘rolling backwards’.
That effort can increase and decrease as circumstance dictates.
Unlike The Cat and Fiddle, we have an infinite number of routes up this ‘hill’.
When the going gets tough (as it can do in life), we can adjust the approach.
To one that requires a bit less effort.
We maybe just ‘coast’ along the flat for a bit.
But let’s not stop and let gravity pull us back to where we’d worked hard to get away from?
Much love,
Jon ‘laughed to see such sport’ Hall
