My Hero for the Week

I have a hero for the week who, seeing him, has inspired me.

I was rock climbing at the gym on Saturday and saw this guy. He was missing one of his legs belows the knee and apparently had a special prosthetic with a small foot wrapped in a climbing shoe. The guy was climbing long, technical routes, more difficult than I can manage. He was lead-climbing (pulling the rope up and clipping into points on the way, rather than using a rope pre-anchored at the top of the route), and his form and technique were beautifully smooth and clean.

Just a reminder of the opportunities we have to overcome difficulties in our lives and not be conquered by them. That life goes on and you can still pursue your passions, even if you've suffered a significant setback.

thats cool.

I once worked with a deaf machinist. So much of being a skilled machinist is listening to the process to detect subtleties, and this guy was good enough to build motorcycle parts. He was damn good.

One of the most memorable and inspiring columns I have ever read was in DIRT BIKE magazine. The guy who wrote it told of following a guy around the Saddleback Cycle Park MX course and finding out the guy only had his left arm, he had lost the other in an industrial accident. So he moved all the hand controls (clutch, throttle, front brake) to the left side of the bars and learned to ride that way. He also drove a 3 on the tree Ford van and was back at work full time.

'I was sad because I had no shoes, till I met a man who had no feet.'