about

The Xmas Epic ethos is enshrined in the heady and seductive principles of attaining a state of ataraxia.

“Ataraxia (Ἀταραξία “tranquillity”) is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for a lucid state, characterized by freedom from worry or any other preoccupation.”

“For the Epicureans, ataraxia was synonymous with the only true happiness possible for a person. It signifies the state of robust tranquility that derives from eschewing faith in an afterlife, not fearing the gods because they are distant and unconcerned with us, avoiding politics and vexatious people, surrounding oneself with trustworthy and affectionate friends and, most importantly, being an affectionate, virtuous person, worthy of trust.”

“For the Pyrrhonians, owing to one’s inability to say which sense impressions are true and which ones are false, ataraxia is the quietude that arises from suspending judgment on dogmatic beliefs or anything non-evident and continuing to inquire. The experience was said to have fallen on the painter Apelles who was trying to paint the foamy saliva of a horse. He was so unsuccessful that, in a rage, he gave up and threw the sponge he was cleaning his brushes with at the medium, thus producing the effect of the horse’s foam.”

Earn the plaudits of your fellow wheelmen and wheelwomen.

2010: This years retro-road-bike-road-trip will actually be in Jan. 2011, around the border ranges and north coast of NSW.