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July 17, 2005
The heat of the day
This morning I went with Dave and Katherine to the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis to watch the Tour de France broadcast live on the big screen. This weekend and next weekend they have opened their doors to the public to watch OLN’s coverage of the Tour de France for free. It was really awesome to see the action larger than life and to see the theater packed with people! It was a whole new experience when the crowd in the theater started clapping when George Hincappie won the stage.
This stage in the Tour de France was brutal for the riders, with so many steep climbs and high temperatures wear them down. As the pace picked up and the miles went on and the hills got steeper, the riders grabbed for whatever water they could get, even taking water from the spectators who were trying to help them. Normally they don’t do that because of the danger of taking something from a stranger. Today I saw many of them taking water and drinking it as well as pouring it over their bodies. On the mountain climbs the speed kept going up as Lance Armstrong and the other overall contenders tried to narrow the gap between them and the breakaway, and soon the peleton exploded into a lot of smaller groups and individuals struggling forward. As they were trying to survive the heat of the day, they were dropping like flies and just trying to survive the race.
After we left the air-conditioned theater we were hit hard by the heat of the mid-morning sun and it brought back the misery of the past few days of our heat wave. The temporary relief of the theater felt good. But Dave and Katherine don’t have air conditioning at home so it was right back in it for them. We were talking about how we were all coping, or not coping, with the heat. I was saying that riding my bike yesterday wasn’t too much of a problem, but when I got home I was treated to A.C., a glass of ice water and a cool shower. Katherine was telling me how it’s almost impossible to get anything done at home right now and it’s been miserable sleeping at night. I remember that up until two years ago, we didn’t have AC either and my wife got so miserable that she started crying. It was hot we were exhausted. One of the worst things about the heat is not being able to sleep. Katherine was saying that it’s been so hot that the sheets of the bed feel like they are on fire, and when it’s this hot we stick to everything. We start to become delirious and grouchy and lack the desire and energy to do anything but escape the heat. I think it’s really not the heat that eventually gets to us, but the lack of proper sleep. We can handle a few days without too much sleep but when it drags on we start dropping like flies, wondering if we’ll survive the heat of another day.
Downtown, many of the homeless guys I’ve met have been searching for shelter; anyplace that has AC that will let them hang out for a little while. They go to the grocery store and shop for an hour and buy one thing. They go to the mall or store or library until someone tells them to move on. And how do they sleep at night? One of them told me he’s getting about 3-4 hours of sleep at a time. Without a ready shower, the dirt and sweat of the day compound the problem over a few days. A couple of the guys were starting to get a little crabby in the bike shop yesterday. It didn’t escalate into a problem, but some heated words flew back and forth. In a bike race, like the Tour de France, the riders can have as much water and energy drinks they want, with food along the way to maintain their strength in the heat, but these guys don’t eat very well, often eating only the one free meal at the church in the evening. All they wanted to do was find a cool place to sit and crash for a while. Even a few hours of relief would be heaven.
I’ve felt like this off and on throughout my life too, drained of energy and desire to go on. When life’s troubles hit us like a heat wave, we handle them one at a time, until they keep coming at us. It’s easy to say, “Oh I can handle the heat,” when we can go home to the AC and sleep at night. It’s often easy for us to give words of advice to others when we don’t have a mental, emotional or physical disability. We often forget what it’s like even if we have experienced the ongoing heat of everyday life. Try not being able to find meaningful work for years on end. Try being kicked out of grocery stores because we are not really shopping, but “loitering.” When the pressures and struggles of life get steeper and faster and our family is dying of cancer around us, or our children are born with birth defects that require a lot more work of us, or our children steel from us and lie to us and we get laid off from our jobs because the company wanted to boost their profits, it can wear us down. We get sick and have to miss work and have to give up our dreams to pay our medical bills. Those are just examples, and each of us has our own struggles and mountains to climb, but when they keep coming and we don’t have the fuel and hydration and relief, we start to fall off the back, drop out, bonk from lack of energy, until we are just struggling to stay in the race. We can easily be demoralized and lose hope. We say, “Oh I can handle it,” when we are on a roll. But I know, I’ve been there a few times, and no we don’t always handle it, we melt and become delirious and depressed.
One thing we can all do is give each other a little relief from the heat, the struggles and rejections and hassles of life, whether that’s being a friend, listening, sharing our lunch, doing an activity together, giving a word of praise where deserved, or helping someone maintain their dignity. Even a smile can be a moment of relief, like those guys along the Tour de France race route giving the riders water bottles when they need it the most. One thing I find very sad is the lack of hope that comes from grinding away in misery. Life doesn’t have to be that way, especially when we are blessed with the emotional strength, resources and time to make a difference.
Posted by carl1236 at July 17, 2005 08:07 PM | Love your Neighbor
Comments
I know..it's been only 2 years since i began to drive and I still get goosebumps every time i see a road accident! yea, about riding a bike - it's been my dream to ride a bike to school. unfortunately, i never learned how to..@.@..!! of course i tried!! hopefully i will learn it this year! ^.^ thanks for your comment!
p.s. i don't mean to be rude..could you please remind me who you are? ^^;..there's only a handful of my friends who know about this site so, i should be able to remember them all..but...i'm so sorry...^^;
Posted by: deborah at July 17, 2005 11:12 PM
안녕하새요, 제 이름은 전 임니다. 저는 우리가 아직 만났다라고 생각하지 않는다. 저는 대학의 한국의 언어 학생임니다. 제 전공 과목은 언어학 임니다. 저는 풀 타임을 일하고, 수업를 밤에 있숨니다. 저는 당신의 한국어blog를, 좋은날씨, 읽었숨니다. 저는 당신의 blog를 좋아함니다!
당신은 한국어와 일본인을 말함니다?
Posted by: John at July 18, 2005 10:54 PM