PAY ATTENTION!

there's been a lot of shit going on in my life of late
stuff that I'm no longer comfortable talking about
but shit that has shaken me emotionally
on levels I won't go into here
and really made me examine my friendships
my belief systems
and my life...

I guess I've said it before
and I'll say it again
I get my "community" from my friends
I have no partner...so my friends provide me
with the support and care that I am missing

sadly...all friends are not created equal
and sometimes I let that overwhelm me...

all of this coupled with
memories of 911
of the Tsunami that wiped out so much of Indonesia
of the horror of Katrina
and on a personal level
the troubles with the VOD
and the bother and the blister and the fadder

all this...sometimes makes me feel like
I just don't know why I bother to get up in the morning

but just when I am about to give up
something happens that re-awakens my sense
of resolution
to do the right thing
to be the best that I can be

I belong to a whole bunch of Internet forums
different types and different subjects
mostly motorcycling
but not all

over the years one particular forum
has attracted me
and it has pissed me off
and I have over the years
made and lost "virtual" friends and acquaintances
on of this forum....
people come and people go
but the core group of a couple of hundred
pretty much stay the same
and even when we are fighting with each other
we stay members
sometimes these people are so small minded
I'd like to hit them with a hammer
and sometimes they come thru in a manner that just
brings me to my knees....

On Sept 9th/07, while returning from a meet
in Yreka CA
a couple of people from this forum
were involved in an MC crash on the CA highway
on their way home to Lakeland CA

she was wearing leather
he was wearing a tank top and jeans

he is to this day in critical care
being kept medically unconscious
breathing by machine...

she (at this time) is about to be released to go home
to finish her convalescence there....
however home is 115 miles from the hospital he is being held in

the accident was as a result of a blow rear tire
a tire he checked before leaving to ride home
a tire that "looked" fine
and had the correct amount of air in it....

but now he has broken all of his ribs
away from his sternum and collapsed both lungs
and that doesn't even begin to describe the
road rash and head injury....

from the very moment that the people
on this forum heard of this accident
they have been galvanized to action

even those that said they didn't like him
have done something....

they have been at the hospital
(people called from all over North America so often that
the Dr's had a family only restriction put on information
because the nurses were spending more time answering the phone
than assisting patients)
they have prayed for him
they have mowed his lawn
they have collected his motorcycle
they have taken her her purse that they salvaged from the side of the road
they have taken up a collection to assist in missed payments
right now they are trying to figure out how they can manage to drive her to and from the hospital regularly to see him....

they have done any single thing that any one of them could imagine
to assist
to support
to love

me?
I am once again humbled

this time I am not humbled by man's inhumanity to man
but in his ability to reach out
to lend a hand
and a buck
for someone they barely know
and few have met face to face
but
when the chips are down
and there is a need
they are there....

and once again
I understand the "right of things"