Someone at the rehab center didn’t charge Cynthia’s chair properly this morning. I met her a little while ago outside my gym, where her motorized wheelchair was caught in a crack on a slight incline in the sidewalk, just around the corner from the home of a friend she was visiting. She just didn’t have the juice to get over the crack and up the hill. (That last sentence really makes it seem like this post is about drugs! It’s not.)
I didn’t know all of this when I approached. All I knew was that there was a lady sitting in a wheelchair on the sidewalk, not really going anywhere and not really at any recognizable destination. I didn’t even know if I should approach, to be honest. Maybe I should just mind my own business, I thought. I decided, though, to ask if everything was okay and I found out what you now know, and I helped her over that crack and a few others, over the hill, and around the corner. We had a very nice conversation about Thanksgiving, the fall foliage, and the gym, and she and her friend, Butch, thanked me heartily when we arrived a few minutes later.
It was a good feeling, to be sure, and I’m glad I decided to stop, but I’m not telling the story so you’ll know how noble I am, what a nice thing I did, or how lucky she was that I happened by. I’m telling the story because it stirred within me many thoughts – some disturbing and some hopeful – and some simple truths.
First, I am astounded by how close I came to “minding my own business” and leaving Cynthia to try to handle the situation alone until, hopefully, someone else came along. I didn’t ask her how long she had been there before I came. Maybe I was the first person to pass on foot (it’s not a heavily pedestrian area); I hope so. And I wonder if I would have stopped so willingly if I “had some place to be.”
Cynthia seems to be a perfectly lovely person. I’m happy to have met her. She can’t walk, or at least not too well, but she certainly isn’t some kind of helpless drain on the society around her. She happened to hit a circumstance today in which her battery didn’t have what it took to get up the hill and she needed a little push.
Many among us hold dear and extol the virtue of self-reliance, as we should. It is a great thing to be able to lift and hold one’s self up physically, mentally, emotionally, economically, and in other ways. In political and economic discussions of late, I have heard many speak with disdain about those who can not do so financially. Some are in dire economic situations because of their own doing, certainly. Some, however, have hit an unfortunate, scary moment of vulnerability because a faulty power cord, a hill, and some rough cement have converged to leave the battery without quite enough juice, unless someone can give a little push. It could happen to anyone and, in fact, it does eventually happen to everyone.
We should not allow ourselves to be bogged down or derailed by supporting those who are not willing to support themselves, but we should not be opposed to giving a little push when it is genuinely needed, either. The ability to give that push is one of the very greatest things about being a person and we ought not go so far out of our way to train ourselves to do otherwise. “Mind your own business” and “do it yourself” simply do not work all the time. Even if I had “had some place to be” today, I was in the right place.
Mind the business that needs minding.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
On This Very Day
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope this day finds you with plenty in your life for which to give thanks, as well as the capacity and willingness to do so. Among countless blessings in my own life, I include this medium for expression and those of you who choose to share in it. It is a most glorious ride.
On this very day, one decade ago, I was in Austin, TX, unexpectedly, to welcome my first niece, who turned 10 yesterday, into the world. As if that weren’t reason enough for the visit to my old college town to be gloriously memorable, once there, I was lucky enough to be given a ticket to a much anticipated Texas football game against Texas A&M. The intrastate showdown is a big deal every year, but that particular game saw Ricky Williams trying to break the NCAA all-time rushing record, which he did in memorable fashion on a 60 yard touchdown run in the first quarter. I just saw the replay on ESPN Classic and it’s still awesome. He really was a fantastic player and was incredibly deserving of the Heisman Trophy he won a few weeks later.
Ten years have passed and, on this very day, another Lone Star Showdown will unfold tonight in Austin and it’s a big one, folks. (I’m listening to Brent Musberger call the ’98 game and I think his talking style is rubbing off on my typing!) Texas has the chance to cement its case for spot in the Big XII Championship game and a shot at a second national championship in four years. That race has been analyzed to death as the football-enthusiast world has sought to understand the BCS system and how this season might shake out. Needless to say, I’m very excited about tonight’s game and the opportunity to beat down a despised opponent.
I’m almost equally excited about the chance for another Texas hero to earn Heisman votes. Colt McCoy is very much in the mix for the coveted award and, if it’s going to go to one of the players currently being prominently mentioned, it should be McCoy. He has done so many different things so well in leading this team, unexpectedly, to the top of the mountain this year. It was, however, this very game that cemented Vince Young’s fate as runner-up for the award four years ago, as he had a mediocre outing against the Aggies and was seen sulking on the bench while Reggie Bush ran wild over some terrible West Coast team.* That game wasn’t held on Thanksgiving, though, and I didn’t have the chance to eat sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, and other burnt orange holiday delicacies. I believe this very day will be different.
* Vince promptly led the Horns to a 70-3 victory in the Big XII Championship and gave perhaps the greatest single game performance in college football history in a head-to-head showdown with his Heisman nemeses in the national championship. Hopefully, voters learned their lesson.
On this very day, one decade ago, I was in Austin, TX, unexpectedly, to welcome my first niece, who turned 10 yesterday, into the world. As if that weren’t reason enough for the visit to my old college town to be gloriously memorable, once there, I was lucky enough to be given a ticket to a much anticipated Texas football game against Texas A&M. The intrastate showdown is a big deal every year, but that particular game saw Ricky Williams trying to break the NCAA all-time rushing record, which he did in memorable fashion on a 60 yard touchdown run in the first quarter. I just saw the replay on ESPN Classic and it’s still awesome. He really was a fantastic player and was incredibly deserving of the Heisman Trophy he won a few weeks later.
Ten years have passed and, on this very day, another Lone Star Showdown will unfold tonight in Austin and it’s a big one, folks. (I’m listening to Brent Musberger call the ’98 game and I think his talking style is rubbing off on my typing!) Texas has the chance to cement its case for spot in the Big XII Championship game and a shot at a second national championship in four years. That race has been analyzed to death as the football-enthusiast world has sought to understand the BCS system and how this season might shake out. Needless to say, I’m very excited about tonight’s game and the opportunity to beat down a despised opponent.
I’m almost equally excited about the chance for another Texas hero to earn Heisman votes. Colt McCoy is very much in the mix for the coveted award and, if it’s going to go to one of the players currently being prominently mentioned, it should be McCoy. He has done so many different things so well in leading this team, unexpectedly, to the top of the mountain this year. It was, however, this very game that cemented Vince Young’s fate as runner-up for the award four years ago, as he had a mediocre outing against the Aggies and was seen sulking on the bench while Reggie Bush ran wild over some terrible West Coast team.* That game wasn’t held on Thanksgiving, though, and I didn’t have the chance to eat sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, and other burnt orange holiday delicacies. I believe this very day will be different.
* Vince promptly led the Horns to a 70-3 victory in the Big XII Championship and gave perhaps the greatest single game performance in college football history in a head-to-head showdown with his Heisman nemeses in the national championship. Hopefully, voters learned their lesson.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Recipe For Disaster
If you happen to be an undefeated college football team, may I suggest that you beware 1 second remaining during road games against teams wearing black jerseys?
I just watched Penn State lose its first game of the year to Iowa on a field goal with a tick left on the game clock, painfully reminiscent of Texas Tech's last second touchdown a week ago to defeat the previously undefeated Longhorns. The mob scenes were very similar and I know how sad a moment it was for Penn State fans (though I was rooting for them to lose as that clears out a team from ahead of Texas in the rankings) and how exciting it was for a proud program looking for something to build on toward the next level.
Now, if only LSU were wearing black!
I just watched Penn State lose its first game of the year to Iowa on a field goal with a tick left on the game clock, painfully reminiscent of Texas Tech's last second touchdown a week ago to defeat the previously undefeated Longhorns. The mob scenes were very similar and I know how sad a moment it was for Penn State fans (though I was rooting for them to lose as that clears out a team from ahead of Texas in the rankings) and how exciting it was for a proud program looking for something to build on toward the next level.
Now, if only LSU were wearing black!
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Procrastination Works: Electoral Math
Happy Election Day!
1 is the number of votes I just cast. There were
0 people ahead of me in line. It took
6 minutes from the time I got out of my car until I began a
2 minute exit poll with a student from GHS-TV channel
17 on my cable dial. Evidently, over
50 percent of my precinct's voters voted early, and over
500 had been through the precinct between
6 a.m. and
1 p.m.
Before I get too gleeful about the short line, I must remind myself (it's not hard) of the
8 long years that I have waited to cast this vote. Now, it's just
5 or
6 hours until I spend the evening watching my evil twin,
Chuck Todd, as he brings us results on the NBC family of networks.
In my opinion, these pictures don't do the similarity justice. Imagine me with a goatee and my hair combed. I've never really heard a word this guy has said on tv because I'm always just laughing at myself on the screen! (I'm an idiot.)
.
1 is the number of votes I just cast. There were
0 people ahead of me in line. It took
6 minutes from the time I got out of my car until I began a
2 minute exit poll with a student from GHS-TV channel
17 on my cable dial. Evidently, over
50 percent of my precinct's voters voted early, and over
500 had been through the precinct between
6 a.m. and
1 p.m.
Before I get too gleeful about the short line, I must remind myself (it's not hard) of the
8 long years that I have waited to cast this vote. Now, it's just
5 or
6 hours until I spend the evening watching my evil twin,
Chuck Todd, as he brings us results on the NBC family of networks.
In my opinion, these pictures don't do the similarity justice. Imagine me with a goatee and my hair combed. I've never really heard a word this guy has said on tv because I'm always just laughing at myself on the screen! (I'm an idiot.)
.
Monday, November 03, 2008
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