What would Possess a Person Part 2: For Robin

Just before the hilarious situation with Rose and her purple “Anti-septic” cattle dye, right before we left the convience store Ben, the store clerk, asked us, “So what would possess a person to ride their bike across the country?” This, at first seemingly humorous and rather obvious question, got me thinking about what really does possess people to do this every single summer whether it be in a supported group, like Bike the US for MS or Bike and Build, or a self-supported ride. As I rode down the last miles of Missouri headed for Kansas I considered the reasons.  I thought of the selfish personal reasons for doing a trip like this which include testing yourself mentally and physically pushing your body to the limits and then crashing right through them.  There is the fact that going on a trip like this reveals more about yourself than you ever knew previously and how liberating it feels to be completely free of commitments schedules restrictions limitations and supervision. I continued to list the reasons in my head of things that I could have told Ben in an effort to explain to someone who was baffled by the thought of someone chosing to do this, and rightly so.

                Then we continued riding and we crossed the state line into Kansas, which for some reason felt more significant than any other state, maybe it is the idea of the prairie and the plains that have in one way or other occupied my thoughts regarding this trip.  We rode only a few miles from the state line of Kansas where we stopped in Pittsburg Kansas for the night.  We demonstrated our priorities once again and wasted no time before riding directly to a restaurant where there would  be a free pizza buffet provided to us by several MS patients from in or around Pittsburg.  When we walked in the door, hot and sweaty, the first person to greet us was a lady sitting in a motorized wheel chair who told us to come to her. When we approached her she reached into a bag and pulled out a red white and blue stitched angel.  She told us that she hand stitched these angels and that they have over 17,000 stitches and took about an hour per angel. When she handed us each an angel she said this “I stitched this angel for you, it is red white and blue because you are biking across the United States and you should be proud of that. They are angels because you are an angel in my life and I want you always to remember that. I will tell you my whole story later tonight.” We were touched by her gesture and excited to meet more MS patients who were at the restaurant, so we stuffed our faces with free pizza and watched the United States play Ghana in the World Cup, unsuccessfully.

                After leaving the pizza place we were treated to free ice cream at an ice cream place and then we headed to our home for the night at Pittsburg Community Middle School.  We headed inside the fridgedly cold air-conditioned building where the whole team scattered to find a dark quiet corner to sleep.  Some went to a local aquatics center, where again we were treated for free, while others relaxed in the cool and rested.  Later that night we were treated, yet again, to a buffet dinner in the middle school’s cafeteria by some local residents who in one way or another had a tie to MS or were at least willing to give their time to our cause and feed 25 hungry cyclists.  After we ate, Robin, the woman from the pizza restaurant who made us stitched angels, was set to say a few words to us as a team. Robin glowed with happiness as she began to talk to us she had a energy about her that was truly contagious. She started off by telling us her experience with MS, “I have had MS for 35 years now.  My experience started when I first became legally blind. Then I lost 95% of my hearing, I am numb from head to toe, I can’t smell and I can’t taste. They say when you lose one sense, your other senses grow stronger, MS took all of my senses.” She continued, and I paraphrase, “I lost my ability to speak, but the doctors were able to give me new vocal chords.”  She told us that she had had MS basically sense they knew what MS was and she had been through every treatment option they’ve come up with.  She has literally been there to try everything.  When she was diagnosed the doctors said she would not live to see her children grow up, now she is watching her seven grandchildren grow-up every single day.  She continues be treated for MS and her outbreaks or “Exacerbations” have gone from occurring every 2 months to every 2 years.  Then she brought up the angels, she said, “If you hear nothing of what I have to say hear this, I believe that everyone has their angels and follow them in life and help them through their living, and I want you to know that each of you are angels in my life helping me get through the days. You are personally helping each and every person in the world that has MS so that one day no one will ever again have to hear the words ‘You have MS.’” The room was silent and shell-shocked as if a bomb had been dropped on all of us.  Every person in the room was in tears and it wasn’t until that point that we knew what would possess a person to ride their bike across the country.

                There are almost countless selfish reasons for a person to do this trip and the personal gains, at least in my short experience have been bountiful but this is not why I am doing this.  It might have started as my “Grand Adventure” and it continues to be to some extent, but when you are told that you personally are an angel in another person’s life you realize what it means to be passionate about something and believe in a cause.  I started this trip for myself and I will finish it a new man, but the remainder of this trip and every day I live for the rest of my life will be for Robin knowing that I touched someone’s life, and that feeling is more life-changing than the grandest of all adventures.