Simply People

 A couple of weeks ago I took the train home to spend the weekend with my family. I took the downtown commuter rail from the Metrodome to Target Field and then transferred to the NorthStar, the commuter train that goes from the Twin Cities up to Big Lake, directly through my home town. For some reason that day I was thinking about my tour a lot. I sat on the train and thought about the fact that just over two months ago I was just completing a bike ride across the entire country. I thought about all of the things we did, the places we saw, the people we met, the adventures we had. And I realized that no one on that train knew what I had done. No one on that train had even the slightest inkling of what had taken place for me this summer. I thought to myself “I have a story. I have done something great and no one on this train knows it.” And suddenly I realized that I’m not alone in that. What have other people done that I could not even begin to imagine? The two men sitting across from me, obviously businessmen on their way home from work, one on his cell phone with his daughter, the other engrossed in his paperwork. What have they done in their lives? What adventures have they had? What have they seen? Where have they gone? What have they experienced? What stories could they tell if I were to ask them?

I was starkly reminded of July 23^rd of this year, the day after we rode into New York City and completed our tour. We took the train downtown to sightsee and explore. It was a strange feeling to be ‘normal’ again. In my journal that day I wrote:

“It was so strange to be walking into the train station, not as bikers, but simply as tourists. We were about to blend into the mass of people moving through the city. We no longer had anything unique about us to make people ask what we were doing, no way for people to know the feat we had just accomplished. We were simply people.”

But none of us are simply people. There is not one of us who is without stories to tell and lessons to share. Few of us get the opportunity to share those things with others. But we can gain so much from each other through that sharing. So why not ask? Sit down and talk with people, listen to their stories, learn from their experiences, laugh at their memories. Allow yourself to be challenged, to see the world from a different perspective, to be pushed and stretched. Listen to the stories of those around you, make a point of asking to hear them, and experience the lives of those around you so that you can live your own life to the best of your ability. A favorite song of mine is called “Being Alive” from the Broadway show Company. One of the lines says “but alone is alone, not alive.” We are not meant to be alone. We are given each other for a purpose. Adventures are not meant to be horded and hidden away. I believe that we have experiences, that we go through trials and triumphs, that we have adventures, that we make mistakes, and that we succeed so that we can share those things with the people around us and they can learn from it along with us. So share your stories. But more importantly: ask others to share theirs.