Fatherhood Quote by Major Taylor

There is swagger in Major Taylor calling time a “perennial old champion,” then the quiet sting of admitting he can’t beat him. The line works because it borrows the language of sport - titles, rivals, the ritual of bowing - and turns it into a metaphysical concession. Taylor isn’t sentimental about aging; he frames it as the only opponent with an undefeated record, which lets him keep an athlete’s pride even while surrendering. “Even as I” is the tell: he’s not talking about decline in the abstract. He’s placing his own legend on the same track as everyone else’s and insisting that the end doesn’t invalidate the win.

The subtext hits harder given who Taylor was. As a Black cycling superstar at the turn of the 20th century, he didn’t just race competitors; he raced a country that tried to disqualify him socially, financially, sometimes physically. For someone forced to prove, over and over, that he belonged in the arena, this acknowledgment of inevitability reads like a rare moment of control. He chooses the terms of defeat. Not by racist gatekeepers, not by fickle promoters, not by the crowd, but by the one force no champion can outtrain.

It’s also a subtle claim to greatness. You don’t “bow” unless you’ve stood tall first. By making Time the only true victor, Taylor hints that everything else - the prejudice, the controversy, the wear-and-tear - was beatable, and in many ways, he beat it.