Sunday Reflection

It seems to me someone is trying to tell me something. Suggesting to me maybe I should use my energies a bit more for others and a bit less for myself.

Signs pop up here and there. This week all I have doing is stumbling across death by cycling articles. These include two from a few years back in Houston, an ND grad in his 50's in NW Houston and an exceptional female runner in North Houston. Disturbing. While I do like cycling a lot, running would be better and safer. But it appears well out of reach for the moment. It has been three weeks since my bike crash. My collar bone is progressing well. I have had no cardio workouts. I have gained no weight and indeed have lost a couple of pounds in my self-discipline. I had hoped that complete rest for the first time ever would help with my Achilles issue. No progress. We are going to get an MRI with contrast now. Usually one would want a negative result. Not me, I am hoping we find something that requires surgery. Either way, running looks several months away.

But so what. This is a little problem in the big scheme of things. I almost hate to pick up the paper these days as it is filled with doom and gloom. Job losses. Never ending conflicts. Even 20 year old Brazilian models dying from drug resistant bacteria. One thing that must be selling very well at the moment is medicine for depression. Spec's must be having record sales. I think one reason the US Airways pilot has been acclaimed so loudly is because people are looking for heroism and success in the face of seemingly intractable situations.

So while I convalesce and strengthen for the challenges ahead, I will give great reflection to two passages from the President's inaugaration address.

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

and

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.