“Pick A Side” Hatefulness
Magical Yellowstone
“I think you should enjoy your time with your family. We can handle it.”
-Sandi Nuss Zellner
If there’s a magical wonderland in this world, it’s Yellowstone. I’m here with my family - the first vacation I’ve taken in a while. I love our Clients who’ve collectively given me space…despite me reminding them to call, text, and email me any time. And, I love our team members! I asked the team if it would be valuable for me to attend a status meeting with one of our Clients tomorrow. Sandi replied, “I think you should enjoy your time with your family. We can handle it.” How cool is that? Those are the kind of team members we have at Tenger Ways.
All of Yellowstone is magical, so even though we were saving Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic Springs for later, we were still excited to visit Norris Geyser Basin. There’s over a thousand hydrothermal features in the Basin along two loops - the smaller Porcelain Loop, and the 1.5-mile Back Basin.
A Busted Wheelchair
We decided to do the Back Basin first, and we had gotten all the way to the far end of it when we came upon a gentleman in a wheelchair along with his wife and daughter. The wheelchair was motorized and he kept swinging it from one side to the other, sort of in a half-circle motion. As it turns out, when he was running it from the boardwalks to the gravel, the gears in the right wheel had stripped.
Those of you who know me also know that I’m not in the greatest shape. Let’s be honest, I’m in terrible shape. And, those of you who know me also know how much I love math, and algorithms, and working out problems. So, once we understood that his right-rear wheel wasn’t going to be very useful, the first question I asked was “how much does this thing weigh?” Who knew motorized wheelchairs weighed so much? 150 pounds! And, the gentleman in the chair weighed twice that! This was going to be tough. But, there was nothing to be done except get started.
At first, it went pretty well, but it kept pulling to the left and I had to use all my strength to keep it going in a straight line, which was killing my wrists. Worse, the right wheel kept jamming, so half the time I was pushing it uphill with the wheel skidding along. Brutal. A quarter of the way back, I had to stop, catch my breath, and shake the pain out of my wrists. We must have passed a hundred people and everyone stepped out of the way as the swerving wheelchair inched forward.
Ian, the gentleman in the wheelchair, and his wife and daughter were the sweetest. They kept asking me to take breaks, and kept trying to find ways to help. I happily took the breaks. Then, we’d get rolling again and Ian would work to guide the wheelchair’s one good wheel in a relatively straight line while I pushed up and down the hills, on and off of boardwalks, around other tourists and tree roots and rocks.
Angels Really Do Exist!
We were about two-thirds of the way there, and I kept having to take more and more breaks. Gabriel, my son, started pushing on the left side, his hand over mine, trying to help keep the wheelchair straight and moving forward. Just when I thought I might not be able to go much farther, I heard a voice behind us. “Why don’t I take a turn.”
That was Joe. I turned around and saw a giant dude, muscles rippling like Adonis, and a chin made of granite. I might be exaggerating, but he looked like the perfect physical specimen in that moment. His two little kids peeked around his legs before scurrying back to their mom. Without a moment’s hesitation, Joe reached for the wheelchair’s handles and started pushing Ian forward. It was still hard work, and Gabriel and I tried to push the sides to keep it going straight. But, we made a lot more progress a lot faster.
That last quarter of the loop is all uphill, so Joe was bent over for leverage. The back of his shirt kept riding up and his kids kept running forward and pulling it back down. You see, Joe had a gun holstered to the back of his pants, concealed carry style. And, the kids knew that a lot of people get scared when they see guns.
When I was about eight years old, I nearly killed my friend, Brad Fields, with a gun. He was showing it to me, and he had turned his back to pick up another of his guns. I didn’t know it was loaded and pulled the trigger. The bullet whizzed past Brad and buried itself in the carpeted floor. To this day, decades later, I still vividly remember the smoking holes in the carpet. I still remember the look of horror from Brad’s mom when she came running into the room. I still remember her kicking me out of the house, her face ashen and her hands shaking so bad that she could barely turn the doorknob.
I never had any desire to be around guns after that. I have never shot one since that day. I’ve never owned a gun. I never want guns to be around my children.
Joe’s Not A Good Man
But, here’s the thing, Joe isn’t a good man. He’s a great man. He was the only man that helped Ian. We passed hundreds of men just as able-bodied as Joe. But, only Joe stepped up and did what was right.
So, here I am on LinkedIn writing a post about a great man and guns. What does it have to do with work, careers, professionalism, or business? Just this: bring joy to the workplace. Be good. Be kind. Be loving. Be more than the money and the goals and getting ahead.
Bring joy to the workplace. Be good. Be kind. Be loving. Be more than the money and the goals and getting ahead.
I’m desperately tired of a society defined by “pick a side” hatefulness. You’re not a bad person if you own a gun. You’re not a bad person if you don’t. You’re not a bad person if you want to abolish all guns, and you’re not a bad person if you passionately defend the Second Amendment.
You can decide for yourself what makes a bad person and what makes a good person. But, I think the world would be a lot better off if it had more Joe’s in it.
To Ian, I hope you found a wheelchair repairman without much fuss and found your way back to Alberta without any more drama.
To Joe, thank you for being so kind…and for being so strong.
Want to learn more?
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