Until I met someone who had no feet.
It's an old saying. And as an adult I have always tried to realize that, no matter what I'm going through, someone else has it tougher. And that they are handling it better than me to boot.
I have encountered people over the years, who, although they have it tough, just seem to handle the problems of life with inspirational doses of grace and peace. Much more than I seem to be able to muster anyway.
One person whom I met years ago, once, has stuck with me.
I never even knew this man's name.
I had just finished my final, final exam of one quarter of engineering school at the time. (Louisiana Tech was on the quarter system, not semesters, I think it still is.)
[Aside: I don't talk about this much, because I always felt it was bragging, but I want to help you understand my frame of mind at the time, ok? Engineering school is hard. I only had a couple of easy classes the whole time there, and in geography class one day, before the teacher arrived, truly half the class was complaining that next quarter, they were going to have to have one, sometimes two classes that were hard. Whine, whine, whine. That quarter I was in geography, I also took the second calculus based Physics with it's lab, Differential Equations (basically the final calculus), and Linear Algebra. My next quarter was going to be much the same, so I had no sympathy for someone who was going to have to take college algebra AND English along with their art appreciation and philosophy class.]
Anyway, my last final that quarter was one of my electrical engineering classes.
Dr. Irby taught us out of one EE textbook, but used another one to find his problems he would give us on tests. This made his tests quite difficult. First, using this other book (he did this in all his classes) meant that the problems would be somewhat different than all the homework we had done. It was kind of like learning Cajun French and then having a test on Parisian French. But, it was easier on him to just copy some problems out of another text than to create ones more like the homework we had all quarter.
At any rate, studying for his tests was a nightmare. You just never knew what you were going to get. He ALWAYS ended up grading on a curve, because invariably, when he worked the test himself to generate a test key with which to grade our tests, he found that one or more problems needed skills that didn't quite line up the exact same skills he had been teaching to that point.
So walking out of that test, and heading to my truck to go home for a glorious, almost two week break, was a natural high. Pass or fail, A or B, the classes were over and done with. Like heading home on a Friday when you have the next week as vacation. The sun is a little brighter, the bird's songs are beautiful, and the grass is so, so green. Know what I mean?
I'm walking across campus to my truck, although I'm not sure if my feet were touching the ground, and I can still picture the warm sunny day.
I headed from Nethken Hall (the electrical engineering building) toward the southwest side of the Louisiana Tech campus where I had found parking that morning.
I cut through an area of dormitory buildings on the southern edge of the campus, and specifically across their parking areas.
I'm enjoying the ride up there on cloud nine when I hear a man say, "Excuse me, sir. Could you help me?"
The voice is close by but A.) I was jerked out of my reverie and back to earth and was a bit disoriented, and B.) I couldn't see anyone.
I made a complete 180 on the sidewalk, and saw that the man talking to me was kind of hidden behind the open front passenger door of his white, full-sized, conversion van.
When I made eye contact, he said, "Could you pick this up for me please? I can't quite reach it."
I looked right in front of him and saw a jacket on the asphalt just in front of him.
The man asking for my help was a dwarf. He was also paraplegic and in a customized wheel chair. He had use of his arms and hands, but not his feet.
Such a simple thing as dropping an article of clothing, and he had to ask for help.
I said, "Of course." and picked up and handed him his jacket and asked if there was anything else I could help him with.
"Nope. That's the last thing, I'm heading home for the break."
He had been putting a few last things into the passenger front seat area of his van, and I could now see that the van had no driver's seat. It also was configured for hand controls of brakes and such, and that it contained a wheel chair lift. He could drive his chair inside the van into the driver's area, lock his wheelchair down, and drive himself.
I wished him a good day and a good trip and continued on my way to my truck. The total elapsed time could have only been about 30 seconds with this guy.
But as I continued on, I was mentally JERKED into another frame of mind.
Here I was, euphoric over having finished such a difficult quarter, and looking forward to the break, when I encountered a man whose life was much different than mine.
I got to thinking about him. He was handicapped, but he was also a dorm room living, full time university student.
How much determination and dedication does it take for someone in his position to go against the grain like that?
I don't know what services were available to someone in his situation, but within seconds of walking away from him, I knew that I would always remember this man.
As I said, I never even knew his name, but I can still picture him. I can also remember thanking God for letting me be there to do that simple task for him that he could not. Just knowing how much more difficult university life must have been for him than it was for me on a physical level made me file a memory of him away.
I did not feel sorry for him in any way. I admired him then, and I still admire him now.
How many times in the ten years since have I wondered about him and thought of him when things in my own life seemed so difficult?
As often as I think of him, I pray for him, something I learned to do about everyone who pops into my mind for any reason.
I pray he's having a good life.
He has no idea that this moment, years ago, has inspired me to repeatedly pick myself up spiritually, mentally, and physically when I thought I was down for the count.
No matter how tough I have it at times, there's always someone in a tougher position, and they are succeeding with their determination and inner strength.
Being reminded of this man, helps me counter the inertia in my life in various areas where I'm either heading the wrong way, or just can't get started.
Sorry to be later than usual in getting my post up. Today is my every other Friday off Friday, and I slept until 11:00am.
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