Life Lessons Learned on the Mountain
I was re-reading one of my Ann-o-grams that I used to write to my US friends when I was living in Africa, and then later to my Africa friends when I was back living in the US. Dang! I’ve had a very fun life!
One of those experiences, downhill mountain biking in Breckinridge, Colorado, provided a deeper appreciation for retrospection. It started as one of my famous "good ideas." It was one of those usual glorious summer days for which the Rocky Mountains are famous. Someone mentioned downhill mountain biking. I’d never done that and was intrigued. It sounded like fun. So Anthony Buhl, Don Krafft, Larry Kammerzell (all good friends of mine) and I, with a rented high-performance bike, went up the ski lift, collected our bikes at the top, and blazed down the regular bike trail. What a gas – at least for me. I deemed it a huge success ‘cuz it was fun, and I got to go fast. The trails were wide and steep with some hair-pin turns which required some technical skill, but certainly within my novice limits. OK, that was done, now what? The guys, two of which were experienced downhill mountain bikers, wanted more of a challenge. Heck, I’m game! So we decided to take a different trail, a more scenic route through the trees. WOW, that sounded like more fun! Well my fun came to a screeching halt. The trail was Way narrow, extreeeeeemly muddy, with lots of uphill biking and tiny, wet, wooden bridges (no guard rails) over little streams that seemed more like crossing Royal Gorge. I left my butt prints all over the top half of that mountain. I was exhausted, filthy from head to toe, and we were only half way down the mountain. Lesson 1 – do not allow my alligater enthusiasm to override my hummingbird skill. (This lesson apparently requires a repeat every now and then!)
Anthony (blessings on him) took pity on my battered, mud-encased body and guided me back to the first trail, where I was able to restore a little dignity by going fast down the bottom half of the mountain. The mountain had yet another lesson for me. As long as my eyes stayed on the trail ahead of me, so did my bike. When my eyes looked downhill, at all the trouble I could get into if I went off the trail, that’s where my bike went. What was previously fun, ended in more butt prints on the lower half of the mountain. Lesson 2 – keep my eyes on where I am and where I want to go. Corollary to Lesson 2 – if I keep my eyes on where I don’t want to go, that’s where I go, which is a message to re-direct my vision.
This was just two of the many lessons the Rocky Mountains have taught me, all of which were about living life, just as IT is.
