Psychic or Side Kick ?

You don’t need to be a psychic I guess to know that pigs fly and excel @ football do you? Scratching your head, rolling your eyes? Don’t brush my statement with sarcasm or cynicism I am adamant they do and if they don’t it does not really matter. None of us I suppose is a psychic or can predict the future but all of us can decide whether we do a sidekick in front of an obstacle or adversity independently of the outcome. 

I don’t do heroes in general but I have nothing else but admiration to provide to those who face an unpredictable outcome, those who are sick, those who don’t know what the future hold for them, those who don’t even know if they have a future. 

When I think about this for some reasons I have two very different and contrasting experiences in mind. The first example that springs to my mind is illustrated by a short statement written by a very brave soul I had the privilege to know.

‘’ What I am going to say is not a fact but is my opinion and if it can help someone somewhere, good!! People should not be scared about cancer the way they are, they should stop thinking it leads automatically to death… Today I think I can say that the reason I am sick is mainly because I was scared of my future, scared of a lot of things which in turn produced so much stress that I ended up being very sick. So all I am asking you is, if unfortunately you end up in the similar position please don’t be scared, the ball is in your court you can score many points against the disease, don’t be defeated. 

Today I think I will be one of those survivors I think I am on my way to remission, it is hard but in a way this has somewhat changed my life for the better. Hey don’t get me wrong I think I would gladly exchange this against the hangover of the century but my two cents call out today is that despite all the support you can get the only person who can do something is yourself, be positive, don’t surrender, stand up and fight ‘’ 

He fought hard, very hard indeed but it was not meant to be and in the end he did not make it. I don’t know if he has seen flying pigs on his journey but I sure know he was not one of those who pushed the ball in a corner. At the time I read the statement above I was awestruck by the lucidity, courage and determination and it has stayed with me ever since. 

Back in May 2015 last year I meet two individuals whose lucidity was apparently seriously questioned by their close friends and family. They had decided to embark and undertake a crazy challenge called 100 Marathons in 100 Days, Stevey Mc Geown and Larry G. Maguire had decided to run 100 marathons (distance of 42Km +) in 100 consecutive days on behalf of the Laura Maguire Foundation. 

Fair to say there were not too many of us on their first day, maybe only a handful of runners which for the most part had not fully grasped the gravity of the challenge. By and large the running community was watching them with polite curiosity and scepticism but was expecting them to fail and bail out of the challenge within less than a month some even said two weeks at best. 

More than ninety marathons later when interviewed by the Belfast Telegraph Stevey said something beautifully simple

‘’Your self-image has been more or less made up of ideas, opinions of other people. You have chosen your self-image. Once you change that, everything changes. I used to see myself in a coffin. Somebody was putting the lid down and I was like, 'Thank God that's all over.' I lived like that for a long time."

Remember even if you don’t have a crystal ball 

PIGS FLY

To the young runner I passed who unfortunately died suddenly @ the Dublin Half Marathon on 19/09/2015

To SGR, SG & SD gone too early 

Sources

Belfast Telegraph

Friendship

100 Marathons in 100 Days

New York

Picture

Mike Mc Glothen

Previously posted on a different platform