The Lesson of the Torn Tendon
For those of you that laughed and cried tears of sympathy when you read about the great witches hat debacle during my race debut I thought I would give you an update on the most watched injury in history.
After x-rays, MRI scans and various Specialist and Physiotherapy appointments the diagnosis is in. I have torn the main tendon in my ankle and bruised a couple of the bones down there just for good measure. It seems that running for 9.5 kilometres after the initial impact perhaps didn’t help things. Hindsight is a wonderful gift for doctors to have on your behalf.
Since the injury I haven’t run at all – both Specialist and Physiotherapist said to me that the injury is indeed very rare and unique AND they still can’t understand how I managed to injure myself so badly. They are calling my injury the ‘Witches Hat Syndrome’ – albeit when they stopped laughing out loud.
My sense of frustration has been high to say the least – not helped by, again, both Specialist and Physiotherapist indicating to me that this injury takes time to heal ‘for a person of my age’. Oh please – let’s just rub it in! You know that it is a long time when every staff member of the Physiotherapist practice knows you by name and asks how the injury is.
At my last visit to my physio – something happened which changed my attitude completely. There had been a suggestion that surgery may be needed and to be honest that may still happen but my physio said something to me that really changed things. I have known my physio for longer than 20 years and really trust him and I think he saw a tad of frustration rising in me.
He said that his aim is to get me 100% well not 90% well because if I run again at 90% – the injury will return and that’s what often happens because most people are just too impatient.
I suspect that most of us think 90% is OK in anything!
At that moment I thought – how many times do I attempt things in life when I am only 90% well? Then when things go wrong I blame everyone else or circumstances when really it was my fault for attempting something at 90% capacity?
Perhaps in the future I should be patient and let the final 10 % heal so I can operate at a full 100%. So no running for me yet – the final 10% is taking some time BUT it will be worth it when I can run at 100%.
The Tank Man Moment
I can still remember the moment as I and millions of people held their breath as one nameless, faceless man stood before a column of 18 tanks in Tiananmen Square China on June 5, 1989 some 22 years ago almost to the day of this blog appearing.
Almost nobody knew his name at least nobody outside his immediate friends and to this day despite numerous attempts to identity him nobody knows who he was or what happened to him even one hour after what he did appeared in the world’s living rooms.
Yet for those of us who saw it on the TV news it was spellbinding. A small, unexceptional figure in long pants and white shirt, carrying what looks to be his shopping, puts himself before an approaching tank, with a line of 17 more tanks behind it. The tank swerves right; he, to block it, moves left. The tank swerves left; he moves right. Then this anonymous bystander clambers up onto the vehicle of war and says something to its driver.
He jumps off and is gathered by his friends never to be seen or heard from again.
Recently I watched the TV footage again and realized that history is littered by single individuals who, prepared to give their all, made an astonishing difference. This man known only as ‘the tank man’ made a difference – he draw attention to China and what was happening there. No media outlet did as much nor any politician, activist or diplomat – he did it. Our Prime Minister at the time, Bob Hawke, cried but the tank man made a difference.
I doubt if any of us will stand before a row of tanks yet I was prompted to think once again of making a difference. It all sounds so humdrum – heard it all before – ‘yeah making a difference’ yet my heart was stirred to think again about it.
I have discovered that making a difference is usually spontaneous, sudden, comes upon us in a flash, instantaneous and happens so quickly. I am sure the tank man didn’t plan for days his appearance before the tanks. If asked I wonder if he would say – ‘it just happened!’
The opportunities to make a difference are always before us – the door opens just a little and the moment is there to be seized. Its up to you but as for me I am looking for my tank man moment – albeit without the tanks.
