Real Americans - Really Caring

Real Americans - Really Caring

I haven’t written anything on this blog for a long while because I wanted to get to a point of clarity about what happened to me on August 15th of this year. That was the day I had the most serious accident of my life. I was on my motorcycle when something strange happened that took the wheels out from under me and sent me flying head first into the pavement. The blow was so shocking to my system that for a few minutes I was paralyzed. I could not move and I could not get up. The pain was so severe that I thought I was going to die there on the side of the highway. I remember thinking as I slid across the pavement: “I’m going to die, here.”

As the fog lifted I was determined to start breathing again and decided I had to remove my motorcycle helmet or I would suffocate. This effort seemed impossibly difficult at first but I soon regained my breath. Now the pain was subsiding but when I tried to get up I could only move my arms and every thing below my chest was frozen. I could not get up. No matter how hard I tried my body would not respond. I was scared.

At this point a woman in her 60’s appeared above me pointing her cell phone at me. She asked kindly if I was alright and I told her I couldn’t get up. She said to try to relax and that she had already called for help and an ambulance was on the way. Why this elderly white woman had been the first to stop is a testament to her courage and concern about an individual in need. All she saw was somebody injured on the side of the road. Traffic was whizzing by and she felt moved to help. Because she had been the first to stop others saw her kindness and were moved to stop as well. Soon I was surrounded by a large multi-cultural and multi-racial group of Americans who were all doing the same thing. Showing concern for a stranger in trouble. The more people that stood over me the better I felt. That is the strangest thing about this event. They were all like guardian angels that each added to my regaining the feeling in my legs. There was a young Jamaican man who kept saying: “Don’t get up, wait for de ambulance, try not to move.” The last was an off-duty EMT, a young Hispanic. All strangers who wanted to make sure I was going to get help. It was like a page right out of my grade school civics book. Every color of the American rainbow. This is my opportunity to thank those Americans who cared enough to protect me from more injury and risked their own safety and stayed with me until the police and ambulance professionals showed up. I thanked them and encouraged them to be careful getting back to their cars because I didn’t want to be the reason they would be hurt.

I learned, I had broken some ribs and injured my back but that helmet had definitely saved my life. There was a deep dent in the helmet that meant that without it my head would have been smashed like a cantaloupe tossed from bridge. Think about that the next time you see somebody riding without a helmet. If only they understood how dangerous it is.

It takes a long time for ribs to heal and my back now has a crushed thoracic vertebrae (the t-4) and there is the ugly reality that it will never be as good again. It was compressed by the impact and I lost a third of its size. So I guess I’m shorter too. Almost four months later I am still dealing with the intermittent pain that returns every time I try to use my back in the ways I could in the past. I am gradually accepting the fact that it takes a long time to adjust to this injury and that is my fate. The flip side is how fortunate I am to be alive, living with an annoyance and not a crippling injury that could have caused brain damage or put me in a wheel chair. I am one lucky guy. While I have been healing I have had a lot of time to think.

I have asked myself a million times if there was anything I could have done differently to have avoided the accident and have come to the conclusion that it was just bad luck. Crap actually happens. We are all vulnerable to injury and there are no guarantees that life is going to be easy or pain free.

The wonderful thing about this event is my awareness of how generous and kind most Americans are. I am sure that diverse group of Americans that stopped to help me all had different faiths, creeds, lifestyles and politics. None of that made any difference in that moment. They all stopped to help. They cared. They weren’t afraid of each other or afraid of me.

If we choose to believe that those who are our neighbors are people we should fear we have lost something wonderful about this country. If we could all remember how dependent we are on the kindness of strangers maybe we can convince our politicians to start treating each other as valued friends rather than enemies. Perhaps they can mature and come up with an agenda that serves us all without breeding contempt and resentment. The next time you hear some opportunistic blowhard on the radio or TV talking about any group or political opponent in a negative way try to determine how much of what they are saying is really pandering to fear anger and ignorance. The forces that try to divide us serve only themselves.

When the flood waters rise or the fires are raging we need each other to survive.

It is time our leaders understood that the American people deserve better than divide and conquer politics.

There are good people making a difference in all aspects of our society. Real heros who risk their lives, health and wealth for others because they are called to do the right thing. Some of these people may not look like you and some may not have your beliefs but they are all real Americans and they all deserve real respect.

Peace, Shalom and Namaste.