You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Staying positive when you feel the light is fading and you’ve lost your life map.
I was talking to my buddy the other day. He sounded depressed.
Really Depressed.
I understand why.
He’s stuck in a wheel chair and he just wants to walk.
He is powerful. He can pull himself up. He can stand as long as he holds onto something.
The problem? He has no balance.
Eventually, left alone, he will topple over.
This is a hard way to live life, especially when your mind is strong and you remember how you were once a physical specimen of unique talents.
I told my buddy to hang in there and concentrate on the positive things in life, like friends and family and his quest to walk.
When we hung up, I think he felt better.
It made me remember this story I wrote for him a few years ago.
You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy!
We grumble and bitch about the most trivial of things. At the time, that issue seems to fill up our thoughts. But then something devastating happens to you or a friend or a loved one, and that trivial matter is no more important than a dandelion blowing in the wind.
I was thinking this the other day as I entertained one of my best friends from High School. He has spent the last five years of his life confined to a wheel chair. Everyone says he should have died. He didn’t. Now he has dedicated his life to rising from the metallic chair and standing on his own.
It happened 5 years ago.
Adam Lee Rogers was driving his VMAX motorcycle South on Highway 1 in Carmel, California. It was night and the road is pitch black. There are no lights on this road, only reflective signs to guide the way. If there were moonlight that night, it probably couldn’t reach the road due to the hills that rise like sky scrapers on one side, and the Redwood trees that reach for the stars on the other.
To say Highway 1 is winding is like saying Christie Brinkley was cute. This road dips and bends and practically comes to a complete stop on hair pin turns that caress the Pacific Ocean the entire way.
If you haven’t driven on Highway 1, you most certainly have seen it on television. This is the highway where they shoot Porsche commercials and tire ads. It is the highway that connects Carmel by the Sea with Big Sur ; two of the most scenic spots on planet Earth.
Within minutes a cab driver arrived at the bloody scene. He called for help. CHP and paramedics quickly arrive. Rogers was rushed to the hospital where the prognosis was grim.
Adam was a strong specimen. Heart of a racehorse. Lungs of a Lion. Eyes of an Eagle. If organ donation was a restaurant, Rogers was the entire buffet line.