Welcome, Ven a gozar!

As I was out walking today a man on a three wheel bicycle passed me. I thought I heard him coming, and he said, “To your left…” about the time I heard him. Generally that is no big deal. In this case I think it deserves mention because this man is a personal hero for the health and fitness part of my life. Okay, that is being to generous, let me say instead he is my inspiration that gets me out walking whenever I can.

So what is so impressive about a man on a three wheel bicycle? That is what I thought as I would see him around once in a while zipping by before I spoke with him. I first talked to him back in January on a day when the temperature was in the teens and the wind was blistery cold from the north. The wind chill pulled the temperature into the low teens.

He was paused on the walking path, probably catching his breath, because it was so windy and  cold, as I walked up to him. We exchanged pleasantries as people do, and I commented on how slick his three wheel bike was. He told me it was a new replacement as he had worn out his previous one. His previous one he purchased about five years after retirement.

He told me he rides ten miles a day, every day he is able to get out of bed, unless he is ill with a bad cold or flu. I thought that was pretty impressive, an old man like him of at least seventy out riding ten miles a day every day. There is something else that makes this old man especially unique among bicyclists.

The man’s bicycle is three wheeled because the man is paralyzed from the waist down. He has not had the use of his legs for decades he told me. He peddles his bicycle with his arms! I could not imagine zipping around anywhere ten miles a day using only my arms on a bicycle! Of course it is made to be peddled with arms. The bicycle has a semi rowing like motion to the action. Think of a motorcycle with ape hanger handlebars that you can pull back and forth and you get the idea.

I think this man is quite amazing. Most people just give up and resign themselves to a wheelchair, and here he is peddling his three wheeled bicycle ten miles a day, winter and summer, rain and shine. Thinking of him makes me feel like I have not done much when I finish a four mile walk on perfectly good legs. There is not a lot to say about him, as that is all I know from our short conversation. But that short conversation sure has inspired me to get out and do some walking on my days off whenever possible.

He was out today as I said, and after he passed me I asked all the people out walking in the opposite direction if they had seen him. Of course they all said yes. I told them he does ten miles a day, every day, and for about half the people it did not seem to have any impact. One man said he wonders if the man ever hits anyone? One woman remarked that now she now will feel guilty complaining about her exercise class. A few once they knew he is out every day, rain or shine, like me were very impressed with that old man.

Of course I do not know how many like him are out there, but it makes me pay attention now when I see an old person out struggling to walk a mile loop. I wonder if they have been taking care of their body all their life like that old man does, or they are scared of their next stop after they can not take care of themselves any longer? I would like to think they have been walking all their lives, but I doubt that is true, and it is too bad they are starting to walk again at the end of their lives.

Comments (0) Mar 07 2008

I have always wondered about programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Well not really about them, but how they work for so many people with serious addiction. I have never had any dealings with them, but I was a smoker many years ago, so I have some insight to the issues at hand for someone who does have need of such a program.

What I do not understand is it appears the program is based on something outside of a person. The idea that addiction is not something I do, but something I can not control and need help with, is the way I understand the program foundation. I am sure I am not the first person to question this concept, but it does seem odd to me. If there were a smoker’s anonymous I would not have shown up at the first meeting and told the group that I can not control my smoking addiction? If I could not control my smoking then logic makes me think I would still be smoking today?

After all how can I not control something, and yet be able to quit when it becomes less important than something else? If I was helplessly addicted to smoking, then I would still be a smoker, or be an almost dead smoker from one of the many smoking diseases. In my case I replaced smoking with something more important to me. That something was not becoming one of the people almost dead from a smoking disease.

If there had been a smokers anonymous, I fail to see what I would have gained joining the group? What kind of mind trick is it to be addicted to something that I can not stop on my own and expect someone else to do it for me? Perhaps it is a need that an Anonymous program solves to mend the reason that causes the abuse? Perhaps the real need is to have another person(s) intervene in someone’s behalf that helps them change their behavior?

I really do not know, and I am projecting possibilities of how these programs work. For myself, it seems I continue a behavior until that behavior is no longer important. I relate it to being young, and lonely. How lonely does a person have to be before they accept that maybe they are responsible for their loneliness? If no one knows you are alive, you can not expect someone to find you, and want to hang out with you, or you with them.

My greatest respect to you if you are in one of these programs and it is working for you. More respect for the people who keep the meetings going who were once walking through the doors for the first time themselves. I know I could not spend several hours a week hanging around with smokers, and not take up smoking again myself and become addicted again. It takes some special internal fortitude. How does one be intimate and distant at the same time in these meetings? Perhaps in the anonymous process people find a new kind of courage, or determination that helps them maintain distance while at the same time being close, and able to make real change in helping someone with their addiction.

I have found in my life that bad habits I had were only around until they were replaced by something that I wanted more. Maybe that is the key to why the programs work? People wake up one day so desperate that they want release more than anything else? They look around and the only hand being held out for them is an Anonymous hand, and they take it, because they can’t go through another day living like they are. Then perhaps through the strength of that anonymous hand they conquer their addiction.

Good people all of them. If these good people did not exist, we would have one less measure of how truly wonderful our lives are. Because we can use these people as a measuring stick of how good our lives truly are, we can also see the amazing miracle the people running anonymous meetings really are. I hope I measure up, at least to the length their shadows on a noon day.

Comments (0) Mar 05 2008

My heroes have always been a little tarnished. I published a past post about Marion Jones and the opportunity for her to become a hero now that she is making herself even with the world - or at least with herself, which is more important. I still believe what I wrote, and I think Marion Jones has started the process of rising above her current self. If Marion Jones continues there is no reason she will not be a hero to young people, and older people alike.

It is my belief our future is never written in stone. We each have our own obstacles to overcome and conquer. I believe there is a potential hero hiding in Marion Jones, and it will shine sooner than later. Unlike other current athletes who prefer to lie and hide, Marion Jones has nothing left to hide. Only opportunity for better things can enter her life, the worst will soon be behind her. Soon she will have paid her debt, and she will be able to wipe her slate clean. Then the real Marion Jones will step out, and start doing great things she may not even have dreamt of. Things we may never know about, and perhaps have no need to know about, but great things all the same.

There is an opinion that heroes do not come from tarnished lives. Some folks may rightly believe that to be a true hero, one has to be heroic in all aspects of their lives. What this does I think, is separate a few heroes from someone doing a heroic act. It is easy to be on the throne and do a great thing, it is much harder when one is struggling to be, and finding themselves in a position of contemplating a heroic act, and following through with it. It is even harder, yet greater when that act goes unseen and unnoticed.

If there are such people in the world who are heroes in the second sense, where their whole life is shiny and polished without a mark against it, and doing great things, I am all for them getting the recognition they deserve, and I applaud them. In my more mundane world, I have yet to meet any people who could pass this type of hero test. The everyday heroes I see in my world are more like the desperate thief Dustin Hoffman played some years ago where he was not a person anyone would look up to, but did something above and beyond him, quite by accident, and for selfish reasons. He became a hero all the same for a short time.

Most of the heroes I have seen are people who are in the right place at the right time, and do something above themselves and the people around them, when they did not have to. They were not looking for the chance to do something special. They did what they did without thinking. One heroic person I have seen had been drinking, another was trying to escape his life, and a third person was coasting along through life trying to be invisible.

What these three had people done with their lives up until that point was nothing special, and after the notoriety wore off they went back to what they were before, ordinary people getting through the day. In the space of those seconds when they acted heroically, they were above and beyond themselves. They saw something wrong that needed righting in an instant, and before they even thought about what they were doing, the heroic action had took place. I am sure when they realized what they had done, they were as shocked as everyone around them.

It may be thought of as less than stellar, but those heroes I have seen in action were ordinary people who had a moment of heroism, and then faded back into the ordinary life they were living before the act. I do think these are the best types of heroes though. These are the heroes that you, I and anyone else can be, if we happen to find ourselves in the right place at the right time.

Comments (0) Mar 03 2008

I went to a drive through for breakfast this morning. The bill was $3.20. I had a five so I handed it to the young woman working the window and told her to keep the change, she did. This young woman and I had differing ideas on what change was. My idea of change was literal, and her idea of change was figurative. I do not know if for the young woman, a $1.80 tip is the norm for a $3.20 bill, or her command of the meaning of everyday words is not that strong. I let it slide, and I let her keep all the change plus a dollar bill. There is a reason why these types of jobs exist, and I know how hard life is hard on a paycheck like that, even if there is another paycheck to help out.

I spent my morning reminding myself the next time I go through the drive through, and that particular young woman is at the window, to be very clear about what portion of my ‘change’ is to be hers. While this thought was floating through the back of my mind, I thought about how silly I was being over the whole thing. I could have asked for the dollar bill and explained a paper bill was not change. My other option was just what I did. In general, a dollar bill is not going to have a big impact in my finances, but it may mean much more to her.

Lunch rolled around and I went to a burger place. Yes, I live high on the hog, at least I ate sitting in a building for lunch. I did not feel like fries, so I set them to the side to give to the birds later. I ate my burger, and I drank my soda listening to the hum of conversation around me.

There is a gas station right next door with fairly good coffee. For me lunch is not complete without a cup of coffee. I fixed myself a cup of coffee and there were those packets of tasty cookies right next to the coffee. One of the brands I like the taste of. The man behind the counter says what is going on? I wasn’t sure he was speaking to me, so I did not answer. He walked out from the counter as I walked up to the counter, and asked if that was all I wanted today? I said yes, just a cup of coffee and the cookies ($1.96).

The Man said it as on the house. I asked if he was sure, and he said yes, he can do that now and then. Besides he added, the coffee was getting old anyway. I saw the last drips of the coffee being made as it dropped into the pot I poured from, so I knew it was not old coffee. I thanked him, meaning every word of the, “Thank you”. He said to me, “God bless you”, and I said, “You too”.

As I was walking out of the store to my truck, I thought once again of the young woman at the drive in window. I really am blessed I thought, and today my generosity combined with her play on words, that I was paid back. Somehow things like this always work in my favor, but today I felt a little guilty because I know without a doubt the morning mix up was half my fault, and here I was being repaid at a gas station five hours later.

Little things like this happen all the time in my life over the last years. I have found the more I pay attention and the more grateful I am when they happen, they seem to happen more often and become more obvious. I can’t really say they never happened before to me. They may have happened and I was just to wrapped up in my own little world, to notice how magical daily life really is!

Comments (0) Mar 02 2008