On the Road [to recovery?]

     Well, I finally got an appointment to have an MRI of my knee (should they check my noggin too while they're at it? Hahahaaaa!) set up.  So, on Monday, I'll have a schnazzy image taken of my innards.  I hope that my knee injury from last spring, which I aggravated on my cycling trip home, is semi-easily rehabilitatable (I had to read that a few times to make sure I spelled it, and used the word I actually wanted to, correct--what a mouthful!).  I am a realist, however, and I recognize the fact that if you injure yourself, especially at a powerful, everyday use kind of joint, and it continues to bother you a year later... well, maybe you royally eff'd up and I may have to take more time to rehab it, or, worst-short term scenario, cancel my cycling trip for 2012.
   
     At least I'm taking the steps to figure out what is wrong with my knee.  There are some folks, especially in the older generations, who figure they have to deal with the pain or that things are incurable--they simply refuse to pay to get stuff checked out until the pain or condition is so bad that, by that time, it may be too late.  I COMPLETELY understand the hesitation in doing a lot of procedures and tests because of the numbers you'll see after a dollar sign on a bill that is sent to you--I GET THAT!  Even with insurance (which I only have because our school requires it), I will pay a chunk of change for my MRI.  But, I see it as an investment in my [health's] future.  Some people invest in property, others in their vehicle, some in the stock market.  I, however, invest in my health.  What good would money, property, a fast car, etc. be without your health?  It's a question that a lot of us need to contemplate.  People ask, especially my family members, why I pay for Farmers' Market goods, which may or may not cost more than the retail store?  Why do I eat certain foods?  Why do I kick myself in the ass for not exercising?  Why do I do this "crazy" bike trip every year?  Why?  All I can say is, "It's for me."  I know, on many levels, how much food affects our bodies, how much exercise is crucial to our mental and physical well-being, the true cost of getting industrially made goods vs. more local sources.  There are so many factors as to why I eat and treat my body the way I do.  All of them, in culmination, make me happy and healthy.

     I also do this cycling trip for you, Montello.  I want to raise money to help you and your people.  I want to give back, via the funds I raise and the recitals/concerts I produce, to you--to show you how far I've come, and to give you a taste of something different.  I want to open your eyes a bit to what's outside of your community; to enlighten and to enrich you, to give you new opportunities and things to think about... my zaniness and physical brutality to myself is because I'm trying to lead by example.  I'm not saying I want you to ride 1,200 miles on a bicycle, or to buy your meat(s) from a local, antibiotic-free, grass fed source 100%, or that you have to produce an annual concert and raise funds for the community--that is what I do.  I want it to inspire you to think... to do... to learn...  I want my actions to cause you to take a moment and assess your life and what you really want to do with it; it is  the only one we have, so we better do what makes us happy, or it'll be miserable!  Don't live it for anyone else.  But, live as a healthy and pro-active example for those around you to see, but not necessarily a model they have to follow to the T.

Life is about choices, and I've made mine.  Have you made yours?