False Inspiration

As I workout again, I like to look around and see what inspires me to work out. For example, the first day I took a step class I wanted to walk out and pass out. The instructor, Teresa, could see that I was struggling and ready to quit. She pointed out this old guy in the class who seemed to be handling the exercise. She said that if this 86 year old guy can do it, so can you. He was a really cool dude. Did push ups on his finger tips, kept up with steps even though he had a hearing aid. He owned a cattle ranch in Colorado and travelled there to do a cattle run once per year.


I was inspired to keep going but not because of the old guy. Teresa inspired me to go on because she saw that I was failing and wanted me to keep going. Her encouragement was the real inspiration to me that day.


Yesterday, I did 30 minutes on the eliptical trainer and decided to sit in the jacuzzi afterwards. As I was sitting there, a kid in a wheelchair pushed by his mother came in to the pool area. I am pretty sure he had Cerebal Palsy. His arms were pretty twisted and he had only use of this upper legs from what I could see. He hopped off his wheelchair and onto his knees and got himself in the pool unaided.



He started doing laps in the pool that amazed me. One lap he did freestyle, then the backstroke, then that one stroke that looks like a frog (breast stroke?). He may have been trapped in the wheelchair but in the water he had all the freedom in the world. Other swimmers offered him encouragement. "Great job!" "Wow, you are fast". The compliments didn't do much for him, he was busy swimming and being a regular kid.


From my vantage point in the jacuzzi, I could also see the sauna and the glass door separating the pool from the sauna. Through the door, I saw his Mom watching him swim freely in the water, looking like ay other kid in the pool. Although she tried to hide it and was smiling widely, every few seconds she was wiping tears from her eyes.


She was my inspiration that day. It takes a lot of guts to take a handicap kid in public and face the stares of others. "Non-handicapped" people go the gym and face the same the stares. Pretty much anyone who is not "gym-perfect". Whether anyone stares at me like that, I don't know but on those days when I am feeling extra fat and bloated, I'll think of the mom of this kid and her willingness to push her son through the gym to get to the pool and let him overcome his handicap and be a regular kid for a while.


Was that too corny? Too Hallmark? Too metaphoric? Too "Extreme Home Make Over"? Oh well, it was genuine and really happened, except the wheelchair part - I made that up for dramatic effect. Just kidding, it was real.