Roads Not Traveled

As I lay in bed last night I got to thinking about how fragile our bodies are and conversely how resilient they are as well!  I have commented at how it seems all of the Spencer side of my family have very poor ankle structures and at the same time, how I managed to be cursed with the Plattner knee problems as well.  Genetics always fascinate me.

But, being a klutz means that at an early age I was out there working on helping the genetic curse!  I lost my knees at 16 in a ski accident.  I really wanted to try out for the US ski team, no where good enough for it - but that does not stop ambition!  Back in those days downhill was run as a dual event - two skiers.  The guy on the inside of the curve never turned and forced me off the course.  He hit a tree and never recovered from the coma, dying several months later.  I hit the worlds largest icicle under a tree and demolished the knees.  Nothing like being told at 16 you would never walk again, much less ski!  Through just plain force of will and endurance I worked on those knees for years, hours everyday to make them work again.

The final insult to the knees came in 2002 when I fell on the sidewalk outside my doctor's office.  Well, it was raining and there was a little moss on the sidewalk......  Yeah, king of klutz, probably the pattern in the concrete got me!  Poor knees just have not recovered from the surgery for that one!  Not enough cartilage left for them to function well.  And since artificial knees are only good for about 15 years, I will wait a few more decades before the replacement.  Better to be in pain than to never walk again, just in case it doesn't go well.

I mentioned one time in this blog about my American cousin whom, being a Spencer descendant, also has the bad ankles - worse than mine and way more surgeries than mine!  But, he had to work very hard at duplicating my knees.  He is about 10 years younger than me and I remember teaching him how to play soccer.  I figured that at least it would be fun for him and give those ankles some help in getting stronger.  It worked.  He went on to win a full ride to college on a soccer scholarship!  Too bad he got drunk at a college party and riding his motorcycle home, at a high rate of speed!, put the cycle into the back end of a VW bug.  The bike went on to hit four more cars - totaling out each of them due to their low values.  As for him, he flew over the VW, and a few more cars, eventually landing on the back end of a pickup truck.  Both feet went between the bumper and the bed of the truck - his body to the outside of the bumper.  SNAP!

Yeah broke both knees.  Of course, he lost his soccer scholarship, was hospitalized for quite a while and now had to get a job to finish college.  Changed him in oh so many ways!  Of course he had NO insurance of any kind, which darn near bankrupted his father for the medical bills and paying auto claims!

So, as I lay in bed I thought about Chris and wondered what ever would have become of him if he had lived his faith those first few years in college?  Would he have met the same young woman and married her?  Would he still have become a phys ed instructor?  Or might his life have truly gone down the toilet as a soccer star?  Don't you just love what if's?

As for me, it is well my skiing aspirations were destroyed early on.  I went on to work for Garcia as a product tester for ski wear and equipment for several years.  I know that would have not happened had I not crashed - I would have been too full of myself for that job!  ;^) 
And it was a great job for someone working on rebuilding muscle - I can easily see God in that one, even though I was still a long ways from becoming a Christian. 

My best friend at the time did go on to the US ski team and never really amounted to much.  The excesses of the partying however took a real toll on him.  When next I saw him, a decade later!, he was still the immature youth he had been - only now he was pushing 30 and having to learn to grow up and get a job.  It was like time had stopped for him and now his future options were looking very poor.  And what might his future have looked like if he had not pursued skiing as a career?

What if's and the road not traveled always fun to swirl around my mind.