(For those of you who haven’t been here for a while, it would help to scroll down and read The Bike: The Prologue, then read Tracy’s offering, then read this. Also, if you haven’t seen the video ‘Lance Armstrong: Bike Shorts Don’t Make The Man’, you might want to consider looking at that first.)
When I was in Houston last February, I was in Barnes & Noble looking at several books and kept coming back to one entitled ‘Ask And It Is Given’. The first couple of times I thought, ‘Interesting, but I prefer my books to be grounded a little more in reality.’
I ended up buying the book and as I read it, started doing the exercises to help me connect to source energy. Things began to happen, small changes for the most part, and I began to pay attention.
One of the exercises -one that I was uncomfortable doing because it seemed too materialistic – was to cut out pictures of things I wanted and put them in a box. On top of the box, I wrote (as directed), “Whatever is in this box, is.” One of the pictures I cut out was of a trail bike. The letter to Men’s Journal and winning the bike happened after.
At this point, if my father were still alive, I can see him rolling his eyes and insisting that the bike happened because I wrote a letter that impressed the editors and not because of some silly picture in some silly box.
Perhaps. Truth is, I’m really not doing this to convince others of anything. I’m still working on convincing me. After Men’s Journal contacted me about the letter, I told Tracy about the book I had read , the box with the pictures and the possibility of winning a trail bike. I told her, “As much as I would like to have such a nice bike, I’m more excited about winning because of what it may suggest about the philosophy of this book.
Hence, the title: It’s Not About The Bike.
And BTW, I have seen a a healthy life in front of me. I know in my heart this procedure will be a tremendous success. And, as I have told a few others, if this is nothing, if it’s all meaningless, then the worst that can be said of me is that I died an optimist.
Except for the dying part, that’s not such a bad thing. You can call me an optimist anytime.
Rick
6/8/05