Caught with Crack

This is Ron with your Motivational Message:

Happy New Year!  I look forward to 2013 and truly know it will be better than 2012.  Also, the end of the world didn’t come, so think of 2013 as a bonus year, right?  Thank you for your prayers and support; it is always an encouragement to hear from you.

If you travelled by plane during the holidays, perhaps you can understand the frustration of air travel.  Recently, I was asked what it was like for me to fly and if I was able to stay in my wheelchair during the flight.  The question surprised me a little; air regulations do not allow for individuals to remain seated in their wheelchair.  The truth is, I must be carried from my wheelchair in the waiting area, onto the airplane, and then placed into a seat.  This is always a challenge because unlike a car, which has a chest belt, an airplane seat only has a lap belt.  Ironic, given that I have no upper body control.  It makes me wonder why they aren’t required for air travel.  Well, I guess a chest belt wouldn’t make much of a difference during a 600mph crash.

For most people who are wheelchair-bound, they are given what is called an “aisle chair” so that they may board the airplane.  Whomever designed the aisle chair was clearly not a quadriplegic—the chair looks like two 2x 10s attached to form an L-shape.  There’s no padding and very little chair to actually sit on.  I’ve been dumped on the floor on more than one occasion and so I now require two people to lift me; one lifting from under the knees and one lifting from under the arms.  The person behind me walks backward, the person under my knees navigates forward.  It is never a simple task, but it’s the “only way to fly” for me.

On one of my trips, the person that was sent onboard to assist in the lift and transfer was no ordinary man.  He was a huge, hulk of a man who looked like he had been benchpressing houses.  The plane was stopped for a layover, so many of the passengers remained onboard and were in a hurry to get back in the air.  In an attempt to make a speedy exit, “Super Man” lifted me out of the chair high and fast.   The only problem was, he had lifted me while facing the wrong way and now three adults would have to turn in the tight aisle way.  During our turn, my face was unfortunately pressed against his sweaty, hairy chest.  I wondered if this experience could get more uncomfortable.

After the sloppy about-face, we were finally heading off the plane.  On our way through the First Class cabin a couple of businessmen gave me a look of disgust.  I thought to myself, “What are you jerks looking at?”  Then, while my helpers sat me down into my wheelchair in the lobby, I noticed an airline attendant was also giving me a strange look.  “What is everyone’s problem?”  I thought.  As I looked down at myself I realized what all the fuss had been about.  My pants had fallen while I was being carried and were now down to my knees.  I couldn’t move my arms, so I did my best to get the attention of my caregiver.  She dived across my lap in an attempt to spare my dignity, but it was too late.  My bare butt had been undoubtedly exposed to all whom I passed by, crack and all.

I looked back at the flight attendant and asked, “Did you peek?”  She bashfully replied, “No!  I didn’t see anything!”  Everyone started laughing hysterically until a security officer came up to me and informed me that I was under arrest.  I couldn’t imagine why I would be arrested, and asked him for an explanation.  He stated that I was in possession of “crack,” and then laughed.  Although I didn’t actually get arrested, this story is typical of my travels.  I hope this made you laugh or at least made you “crack” a smile.  Sometimes we just need to laugh off the things that don’t go according to plan and we get caught with our pants down.  Our challenge today is this question: is the circumstance or situation that I/we are experiencing truly worth wasting time, energy, and resources on?  Maybe we just need to laugh, pull up our pants and move on.  Let’s go change a life in 2013!

To your inspiration,

Ron