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ISSUE 5, 11 NOVEMBER 2025
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Welcome back to The Bend!
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The Bend follows a simple rhythm each week. The Eddy Line opens with a one-line thought or
observation, something short enough to remember but worth thinking
about. What the Current Pulled Toward dives a
little deeper into where the previous week’s energy went, whether that’s
a project, a partnership, or a personal lesson learned. Signal Fire highlights a person, place, or initiative
that deserves some attention. And One Thought Worth
Sitting With closes things out with a brief reflection or quote
that will hopefully help guide you through whatever you may be dealing
with.
It’s part journal, part field note, and hopefully
something that makes you pause for a moment before diving back into the
current.
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“Empathy doesn’t mean believing every motive. Empathy
means offering kindness even when trust is
fragile.“
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What the Current Pulled Toward
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This week, the current
pulled toward a really hard kind of empathy.
It’s difficult to express and display empathy and compassion
when the “other side” feels unkind or untrustworthy. I recently
presented a session with my good friend Jason Bookheimer about leading
with empathy and he slipped in a slide that stuck:
“Being kind to someone you dislike doesn’t mean you’re fake.
It means you don’t allow other people to control how you show up in the
world.”
I wish I could say I’ve
mastered that, but the truth is I struggle with it. A lot. Still, it’s
something I’m aware of and actively working on, even if the improvements
are small. Because small improvements still count, right? In my work
(and in my life) I’d prefer fairness and consistency over gray-zones and
relationships that feel uneasy. Things rarely turn out that way and
that slide (and the more time I spend with
Jason) was a good reminder.
Between
unpacking that session and diving into board work with the Roanoke
Mountain Bike Alliance, a group pouring hours into trail building,
maintenance, and advocacy, I found myself reflecting on leadership in
its quiet form. Advocacy work asks you to hold space for different
personalities, politics, histories, and perspectives, often without any
guarantee of reciprocity.
You have to
practice empathy in the messy places: around a table, in a meeting, on a
trail work day where everyone is tired but still trying. Empathy is a
commitment to see and serve beyond comfort.
This week reminded me that empathy isn’t always soft.
Sometimes it’s the hardest thing to choose, especially when bootlicking
and duplicity are part of the landscape.
But it’s still worth choosing.
- Mike.
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The Roanoke Mountain Bike Alliance
(RMBA) has been sharpening its focus in all the right ways. With
their recent rebranding, the organization has doubled down on what
matters most: building, maintaining, and advocating for sustainable
trails across the Roanoke region.
They
aren’t just out there riding: they’re the ones behind the scenes shaping
the places where everyone rides. Their work includes everything from
corridor clearing to drainage fixes and reroutes, as well as long-term
planning conversations with land managers.
When a storm rolls through, RMBA volunteers are usually the
first ones showing up with saws, tools, and a commitment to reopening
trail access quickly and safely.
As a
member of the board, I’ve seen firsthand how much time and heart goes
into advocacy that rarely gets spotlighted. It’s meetings, partnerships,
stewardship days, and policy discussions: all the kind of work that
keeps entire trail systems functioning for thousands of
riders.
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One Thought Worth Sitting With
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This week’s theme: Empathy in the Face of Duplicity.
“When you are not practicing compassion automatically
toward those who are different from you, who are not cheering for you,
then you are disconnected from the spirit of something bigger than
yourself.”
- Mae West
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