I was reading http://arcticglass.blogspot.com/ today and something she wrote struck me, about not being nearly as depressed about her circumstances as she thought she might be. Jill is an extreme athlete to the maximum, riding what is called the Iditarod Trail Invitational, an event for runners, bikers and cross-country skiers. Sounds heinous to me, but she finished last year and set out to beat her time this year. On day one, she fell into a small ravine along a river and got wet, and ended up with frostbite on her foot and having to pull out of the race, along with her boyfriend, who was developing pneumonia.
Now, this is something I would never consider doing, but I completely understand the issues involved insetting a goal and not being able to achieve them, or conversely, achieving them. In the fall of 2001, we had dinner with friends of Katie's parents, and Bud said he was going to this ride, from SF to LA, call the California AIDS Ride. I thought, wow, sounds like a great thing, raise money for a great cause, something that is important to me, as it had been such a blight on the industry I worked in and struck very close to home. So i began training and working very hard to make this ride. And I did. I can only imagine the way I would have felt if I had pulled out partway through.
Which brings me to the present. Many of you know I lost my job in December, through no fault of my own, no fault of the company, just another victim, along with the 2.3 million other people that have lost jobs in December- February as a result of the economy. I moved to Denver with high hopes of the things I wanted to accomplish, the things I wanted to learn and do for the company. All of that is gone, blown away in the wind like so many other things we find that happens in our lives.
Yet, curiously, I find that the days go by, and I am generally happy and contented with my life. Sure, I would prefer to be working, to be a contributing member of society. And ultimately, I will be again, in some fashion. But after twenty-three years of the daily grind, it has been a welcome change to be able to wake-up, drink my coffee and think about going to the gym and for a bike ride.
And being able to ride the urban trails of Denver, to explore the beauty of the wetlands, to take in the incredible expanse of the Front Range. Eventually, I will need something more, but for now, the view in the picture above, suffices.
