My New Hero, “Rollerblader Guy”

I went for a nice long run the other day. As I ran down the beautiful Shining Sea Bike Path, a man skated past me on rollerblades. He had a backpack strapped on his back and was carrying a hockey stick. It immediately brought back memories from being in my 20’s when rollerblading was the new thing and I decided that I needed to rollerblade around everywhere. One time I rollerbladed with a group of friends on the Cape Cod Canal bike path and we even had a former Boston Bruin with us. The hockey stick triggered that fun memory for me, I had forgotten all about it.

As I was lost in my memories of my younger days as a pseudo-rollerblader (see above photo of me in South Beach, Miami, in 1996, thinking I was cool when I absolutely was NOT cool), I saw hockey Rollerblader Guy do something unexpected. He stepped off the side of the path and used his hockey stick to pick up a piece of trash. I wiped the sweat off my brow and looked more closely, and I saw that the hockey stick had been modified – the blade had been removed and replaced with a pointy stabber thing (yes there probably is a better name for it) to poke into pieces of trash. Wow. I was impressed.

He was ahead of me, and I watched him pick up piece after piece of trash, and put each one into his backpack. Each time he stepped off I got a little closer to him, but then he was off on his blades again and I was never able to catch up with him. I really wanted to tell him how awesome I thought he was.

As I kept running, for my own exercise and in a fruitless pursuit to catch up with our hometown trash hero, I got to thinking. First, I thought that this guy is awesome. He is spending his Sunday morning outside, getting some exercise AND helping to keep our town clean. This is pretty amazing. I felt thrilled to witness this truly selfless act.

Then I thought about how in my seaside town there’s a lot of complaining, especially in the local Facebook groups. There’s a lot of complaining about how the tourists come to visit and they leave their trash, or how there is always trash on our beaches, or how “people need to learn to pick up after themselves, and they should get fined, or we should dump trash in their yards and give them a taste of their own medicine,” and a whole lot of other negative sentiments about wayward trash in our town and those that dare to leave it lying around. I’ve even seen in some groups, that people have posted pictures of people who litter, or of the litter itself. I would like to mention that sometimes a gust of wind comes along which grabs the errant napkin or granola bar wrapper, or someone drops a piece of trash by mistake because they are also juggling several small children, a stroller, and a beach bag full of toys. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, trash does get away from even the most well-intentioned of us. So there’s that to add to the mix.

As I watched Rollerblader Guy pick up a plastic water bottle, I thought about how people these days are very busy blaming and shaming others. My thoughts turned to energy.  I thought about how much energy people use to complain. Then I thought about the energy I was using to run and to exercise my body. I thought about the energy Rollerblader Guy was using to clean up the bike path I was running on.

We all have a limited amount of energy to use each day. I am a proponent of using our energy wisely, productively and in a positive way. Admittedly I struggle to do this all the time, especially with the productive piece. I sometimes waste my energy and am not as productive as I’d like to be. But even if I’m wasting energy, I make a point to not put out negative energy, especially in the form of judgment and blaming others.

Blaming other people for problems might make you feel better (for about a minute), and you may even be correct in pointing out that you yourself didn’t cause the problem. But blaming and judging others is a waste of time and energy. Instead of pointing fingers, what if we used our energy to work on the solution? Sometimes the solution is a healthy, open, encouraging conversation with others, inquiring in a non-judgmental way about their behavior and if it could use an upgrade. Sometimes the solution is to get your butt up on Sunday morning and bring your modified hockey stick with you while you get some exercise on one of the most beautiful scenic pathways in New England. Why can’t we spend more energy on solutions, rather than blaming others for the problems?

Sunday was a long run day for me, so I had plenty of time to process my thoughts and observe my new hero, Rollerblader Guy. When I hit mile 6, he was at mile who knows what, and he turned around and began skating back towards me. Here it was, my opportunity!

I had a big smile on my face. I felt such love for this man (I’ll tell you about my practice of falling in love every day in another post) that I wanted to give him a hug, but I didn’t want to scare him off of his very important task, or make him think I was attacking him, so I didn’t. I instead yelled out (a little too loudly, because I was listening to music) “Hey, thank you for what you are doing!!!” He at first looked a little surprised, but then saw my big silly grin, gave me a smile back, looked very grateful and said “Ahh, thanks!!”

It was lovely, a great interaction for my morning. I was thrilled to connect with an amazing human on my run. This is what life is all about: noticing the good, appreciating it, and acknowledging it. Sharing in it and connecting our energy with others. You see, I know that Rollerblader Guy and I have something in common. He sees a bigger picture, just like I do. It’s not all about me. The world does not exist to serve me. I am here to serve the world, and every day the way that I serve can be a little different. On this day, he was the one doing the work, and I was the cheerleader, sharing in and appreciating his good deed. Maybe tomorrow our roles will be reversed. Who knows? I’m just going to keep showing up every day with my good energy and see what the day offers.

From now on, I am determined to be more like Rollerblader Guy. No not in the rollerblading way. I’m pretty sure I won’t be rollerblading anytime soon. I mean in spirit…Imagine if everyone had a little Rollerblader Guy in them? What if instead of wasting energy blaming others, or complaining about the problem, we all just got up, laced up, and went about our business helping to be part of the solution?

I’m in! How about you?

Go and do, with grace,
xo

- Nancy

Trying to look cool in South Beach, Miami, 1996.