17 February 2006

LIVESTRONG


I finished reading the autobiography of Lance Armstrong. Its called "Its not about the bike: My journey back to life" I have to say that it is a pleasure that we have such people around us. It took me long to finish reading the book. I had reasons. I dwelled on each line i read. I tried to imagine how it must have felt to vomit thick black tar like matter while he lay on the bed during his chemo. I also imagined the feeling then he won his first "Tour de France" in 99.
The question is "what I learned from all this?" Lance says "every person is capable of much more than he realizes" This is a great lesson i have learned.

He has said that children have greater cancer survival rate thar elders. He has told a very touching story. "" In the hospital where Luke (Lance's first son) was born, he visited cancer ward of children. There he carried Cereal boxes with him to gift the children. Those boxes had Lance's foto on them. One small boy who had cancer, grabbed the Box and stood by the knee of Lance.

"Can I have this?" the boy asked.
"Yes you can have it" Said Lance, "its yours"
He just stood there looking at the box, and then he looked back at lance. He was pretty impressed.
Then he asked "what shapes they are?"
"What?" asked lance
"What shapes they are?'" asked the little fellow again.
"Well, its Cereal. Its all different shapes" said lance.
"Oh okay" he said
To him, it was not about the cancer. It was all about cereal.

Children have that ability to ignore odds and percentages of survival. They dont have fear of failure or fear of embarrassement. May be we should learn from them.

There is much more to write. I will have to republish this blog.