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| Smiiiile, it's Yankees time!! |
It's Lo, comin' at you on a Bright and Gorgeous Sunday morning. When the sun's up, I'M Up! I'd rather be dead tired than dead lazy, which I guess sums up this week in a good way. I conquered more "fears" as I morphed into Julia Child in cooking class, conquering the art of creme brulee, chocolate souffle, quiche and chocolate ganache. I attended a benefit for addiction and alcoholism where Liza Minnelli and Judy Collins performed to honor music bigwig Clive Davis (I've decided I Adore going to benefits featuring yummy non-alcoholic drinks, celebrating sobriety is Right up my alley!), went to a panel on acceptable usage of social media (that's pr speak for keep your skeletons in the closet where they belong), and channeled my inner "Baby" as I learned to salsa dance. I'm now accepting Patrick Swayze applications, you know how to reach me. I cooked grab n go meals so I wouldn't have to keep eating at 11 pm, raised the roof at a birthday party, planted attempt #2 at gardening (I REALLY want a lemon tree but if I can't keep basil alive this may be a moot point), cleaned the apt until it sparkled, pondered while doing baptisms at the temple (which were performed in Spanish, I just love how no matter the country or language, it's still the same!), picked up my Favorite summer treat of Passion Tea Lemonade (big shout out to Grandma Mary for the Starbucks card, it's been put to VERY good use), tanned at the park, then an Art lecture on medieval armory and weaponry at the Met (where I became besties with the assistant to the editor of Cosmo--you can't make this stuff up), rode the bus to do my visiting teaching (not only is Jiyoung a Star when it comes to rent advice but shaved ice is an Asian tradition and it tastes SO good with Mochi), and topped it all off with a Broadway play. Oh, and I finished two books this week! What did I learn? That I'm getting three times as much done with energy that seemingly comes out of nowhere but in fact is created because I like the feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing hard things.
One of the books I read was Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong. It's neat to read about the Tour-the suffering, agony and triumph, seen through his eyes. One thing about me is, I've learned to stay away from overly sad books or movies, I become Way too emotionally involved. My mom had to take Shiloh out of my 6-year-old hands when I got hysterical over the dogs being starved and abused; coincidentally, Disney's the Fox & Hound was also banned (side note: I think EVERYTHING should have a happy ending). One day, I was talking with a friend about suffering and trials that other people go through, and I broke into tears over how sad it was. My friend, who happened to be a guy, looked on in horror and quickly tried to make me stop. For women crying can sometimes be cathartic; for men it's the kiss of death. The next day I got a text from him, super simple, that said "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."-Helen Keller. He had no idea the impact that made on me. Simple, but to the point and I've never forgotten it.
When Lance became an activist for cancer, he pretty much did anything and everything he could to meet with people that had cancer or suffering, and try to help them. I think that like him, I can handle my own suffering and difficulties but watching other people is a different story. It was hard to watch them suffer as he had suffered, as only a cancer patient knows. He quickly learned that focusing on the overcoming of the suffering, was where it really mattered. In a nutshell, that's the Tour de France. The winner of every Tour de France is not the person that has suffered the least, it's a celebration of overcoming the most, as a person and as a team. Only in biking does Everyone on the team suffer, sacrifice, work together to get the glory for one person, it's unique in that respect.
Lance shared an anecdote that sums up how you look at suffering, not focusing on the suffering itself but focusing on the triumph of overcoming it. George Hincapie had a saying for when he was feeling good. The chain on a bike cranks the wheels and creates the tension in your legs that moves the bike forward. If there was no chain, you'd spin nothing, air, making it feel super easy (you'd also go Nowhere). The postal team would be in agony climbing up a mountain, body operating at capacity and wanting to quit, and then George would say "Man, can you check something for me?" -What? "I don't feel a chain, is there a chain on my bike?" HAH! Everyone cracked up, and "no chain" became code for feeling good, no matter what was going on.
Suffering through cancer is what made Lance realize he needed to live each day like it's his last, Carpe Diem. Try the things you aren't good at, embrace hard things and realize there's a satisfaction that comes when you beat whatever it is you're facing. I think that's what I love most, about this week and about many other things in my life, is that exhilarating feeling when you are doing things outside of your comfort zone and pushing through it, only to do it again another day. What makes my life hard is not going to be what makes your life hard, which is why you've got to figure out what your own challenges and hardships are and work on those. Life isn't meant to be a standstill, life is meant to learn and grow and be stretched. Ask me how I'm doing today. No chain...
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