I wept...

A new friend, I meet a man on the river front some time ago. He a fellow bike rider, to the point that after talking to him for a while today, he has not owned a car for the last 5 years. When asking about travel, vacation he states that it is cheaper to "RENT" the car that best suits his needs for that trip. Before I get into "Johns" story, let me back up a bit.

Two weeks ago I was riding to work, feeling rather down on myself for all the weight I allowed myself to gain. I release that this is a destructive line of thinking, but never the less, I was there in full dress fatness. While slugging my way up a small rise, I can’t even call it a hill, a man on a MT bike positively FLEW by me. He gave me all the normals "passing on right", and "have a good day head bob". At that moment I was in full despair, I knew I was working just as hard as he was, but that was a speed I just could not obtain. As luck would have it, I meet back up with this individual at the next red light, as I pulled up something cough my eye. There was something odd, or just out of place about his bike. Giant MT bike, 29's I believe, Disk brakes, BB7s, Top end comps, hard tail, over all one sexy ride. Then it hit me, he had a cast on his right hand, my next thought was DAMM this guy is hard core.

So when I caught up with him, I asked how he had injured his hand. He looked upon me with a display of relief and surprise. He proceeded to tell me that he was impressed, his arm creped most people out, and my frankness was refreshing.

I was truly confused, it’s just a cast right.......... Oh DEAR god... He turned his elbow, and with a very familiarly "slclick" sound his arm detached from the cast. At this point in the day I'm about ready to throw myself in the river, bike and all.

John, calms me down, and explains that he lost his hand from right above the writs in a accident years ago and has ever since been using prosthetics. He further enlightens me that after his accident he was inspired to go into the field of prosthetics researched and design due largely in fact to the shoty state of human replacement parts on the market. To keep from having to rely on a hand to attach him to his bike, he "created" a solution. He constructed a boot that fits over his wrist, after destroying a bike shoe, and attaching it to the boot, he attached a crank brothers Egg Beater cleat to his handle bars and bingo. He can safely control his bike, and yet release with the same ease and precision as his feet.

This was the end of our conversation on the occasion, the light turned green, (again) and off he went.

Ok, this brings us today. I meet back up with John today, and things were not as happy as they could be, while on my trip in, I spotted a biker sidelined by a flat. As I got closer I relished it was my friend John, so I pulled over and asked if everything was ok. Here he had hit something resulting in a pinch flat and was without the proper hand to make the repair in a timely manner. I offered my assistance and off we went, three hands, two legs and too much talking. After we got everything back on track, he offered to ride in with me, stating something along the lines of not wanting to ride alone today. We talked about why he rides to work, and why I do. Parking, Gas and overall health choice.

As we were riding he looked at me and I quote:
John - "You know I really think its admirable what you’re doing"
Me - I looked at him with what could only be described as puzzled confusment.
John - "Most people your size would never attempt to ride to work, let alone repeat the process day after day" he went on by saying "It always seems unjustified that we as a society make jokes about people who are overweight, and further joke about the ones that are trying to do something about it by working out, riding or just getting out for a walk" "But then here you are, not only saving money for gas, and parking, but also doing something to get yourself in better shape and improve your life"
Me - SPEECHLESS "I'm not sure what to say"
John - "The first day I passed you, when we meet up at the red light and you asked me about my cast, I remember thinking, WOW, look how hard he is working to get up that hill, I'm not sure I could do that"

From there the conversation trailed off a bit, I'm an emotional fellow, so I had to collect myself a bit and I believe that he saw that what he said touched me.

Now that I'm at work, and have had time to think about this event, in retrospect I'm wish I would have been able to comment on the advancement, and wonders of his work and what he has been doing to make lives better. But in the end all I can think about is a saying my father once told me when I was envious of my child hood friend. He just got a brand new bike of all things, and I was jealous of him for mine had some miles on it.

My father looked at me and read my mind, he said;

Father - "Jas, you know the white fly rod that I use when we go fishing?"
Me - "Yes Sir"
Father - "I love using that rod, sure its old, but it has caught a lot of fish"
Me - "But wouldn't you like to have a newer rod sometimes?"
Father - "Oh, I think about it from time to time, but then I remember something my Dad told me once"
Me - "What was that?"
Father - "I weep, because I had no shoes", "Till I meet a man that had no feet"


I could not think of that conversation today, here I was feeling sorry about myself and then I meet a may missing a hand that believes what I'm doing is hard.