Your Story: To Die Happy is to Live Well

“Oh, Alex, I do worry”  “Aren’t you afraid of getting killed?”  “Is that safe?”  “Why don’t you take up butterfly collecting?”  “What’s a bicycle?”

As a cyclist, I’ve heard all sorts of appeals to my sanity masked as concern for my safety.  My mum was the worst; eventually it got so I wouldn’t even tell her of my cycling adventures for fear of hurling her into paroxysms of worry.  It’s as though any activity outside the safe confines of home and car [ironically, both locations fraught with danger] automatically invites death.

Every year, millions of people die while performing the most mundane of activities or, the compounded affects of an unhealthy lifestyle return as the grim reaper’s scythe   A car crash, drowning in the bath-tub, an awkward escalator dismount, extreme texting, heart disease, diabetes, fat ankles, boredom; many simply die alone in bed, their bodies weakened by the creeping affects of age.

Then there are those of us who understand that it is the refusal to truly live life to the fullest that is killing us, both as individuals and as a species.  I used to be that person, putting goals on hold, pushing adventures to the back-burner so as to simply exist, never really living.  Motivated by the death of both my parents, I now refuse to subscribe to the folly of betting on long life.  Instead, I’m going to live it while I have it, doing what I love, even if it kills me.

A few days ago it was reported that Peter Root and Mary Thompson were killed while cycling in Thailand.  On a quest to cycle-tour the globe since July 2011, this pair of cycle-bloggers were struck by a pick-up truck whose driver was distracted when he dropped something.  This moment of distraction ended the live’s of two people living life to the fullest.

Yes, it’s sad that these two young people were killed in such a tragic way.  But then again, it’s not so tragic at all.  A couple in love died together while doing what made them happiest.  I dunno, but that sounds like an end few of us get to enjoy.  In my view, it would have been tragic if they died while planning their grand adventure, not while enjoying it.

That’s how I want to go; while at my happiest, not driving on the #401 highway or laying in a geriatric hospital.  To die in love and on the bicycle is a dream, not a nightmare.  While there will be those who use the death of these two cyclists as ammunition to strike fear in the minds of the weak, the strong understand that their death is a call to life.  I, for one, love life and am not afraid to live it.

So long as we ride, the memory of Peter and Mary shall live on.

From Peter and Mary’s blog, http://www.twoonfourwheels.com/

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