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MOEBIUS MUSINGS
                              by Kevin Smant
 

Howdy, all. 

I hope you're all enjoying this beautiful fall 2003 (at least it has been here), and looking forward to the coming holiday season. 

Don't worry, Goldie the cat (who I wrote about in previous musings) is doing fine.  Only now, when he goes outside with me to take out the trash, he tries to catch flying (and fallen) leaves, rather than birds!

I've read some terrific books lately, and of course have been talking to and reading things by my fellow Moebius folks.  And (as always) they got me to thinking.

I know some of us have asked:  why do I [we] have Moebius Syndrome?  Was there some reason for it, some higher purpose?

Interesting that this should come up.  Some of the best authors in America have been ruminating on just that kind of thing.

One of them is Mitch Albom.  Several years ago he wrote a book that some of you may have encountered, called TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE.  Now he's written a new one, called THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN.

It's about a man named Eddie.  He spent most of his adult life working at an amusement park, as a maintenance man.  He spent his days tightening the brakes and testing the safety of roller coasters and other rides.  He'd dreamed of doing more with his life, of advancing to other work, to a more prestigious job.  But he didn't.  And, at the age of 83, he dies suddenly; and he thought his life was a failure.

But on his way to heaven...well...I don't want to spoil it for you, you should really read the book yourselves...but let's just say several people he meets show him that his life wasn't a failure.  He had touched more people than he knew--to begin with, all the children who enjoyed the rides that he made sure were safe.

And then there's John Grisham's latest book.  Some of you might know of him as the guy who usually writes crime/lawyer/mystery novels.  THE RUNAWAY JURY, which Grisham wrote several years ago, I guess became a big-time movie.

His latest, though, is different.  It's called THE BLEACHERS; and it's about a hard-driving, legendary high school football coach, who in his career had produced long winning streaks and multiple state titles.  But his methods were extremely harsh, and so despite all the wins, at least some of his ex-players had come to hate and fear him.

Now Coach Rake had cancer; he was about to die.  But despite their complicated feelings for him, many of his ex-players came back to town for the funeral they knew was coming.  And for several October evenings, a number of them gathered at the town's high school football stadium, to sit in the bleachers and to talk about, figure out, and reconcile themselves to their coach...and to their past.

This included Neely Crenshaw, perhaps the best quarterback ever to play under Coach Rake, but who had come to hate him and his life...because he'd suffered a terrible knee injury some years before, ending his football career and leading him to several years of aimlessness and drift.  He'd made many mistakes.

He thought his past football glory, now gone, made him a nothing.  He thought he hated his old coach; but maybe he secretly feared he'd let him down.  He thought there was no way to deal with some of the mistakes he'd made in his past; and so he avoided them and his past.

Until his coach was dying, and he came back home.  And he realized that just maybe his past, and his old coach, had lessons for him yet; and that he meant more to people than he knew.

I hope I haven't spoiled the ending for you.  There's a lot more to it; read the book yourself--believe me, it's not first and foremost a football book.  It's a book about life. 

But as I finished Grisham's book this past weekend and put it down (I was reading it on the floor, sitting near the TV; Goldie the cat had taken over my chair and was snoring away comfortably!) I thought I saw a connection between all of this.

We don't know why things happen.  We don't know why we have Moebius, or why we have red hair or long legs or the ability to do amazing things with yo-yos.  Or why we become football heroes or maintenance men.

We're certainly not all famous.  Oh, we have things we do, we have our niches in life.  But maybe that sometimes to you seems so mundane, ordinary; you fear it matters to nobody.

Maybe you just don't like your past.  And that that past determines your future.

But you might affect more people than you think.  Maybe, if you have Moebius, others admire you---for your perseverance, for your determination to overcome any obstacles put in your way.  Maybe in s small way what you do impacts others in a positive way, every day.  Maybe people watch you and learn from you and are inspired by you---even though it's from a distance, and they never say a word.

You never know.  Remember Jimmy Stewart?  "It's A Wonderful Life"?  That's one of my favorite movies.  He thought he was a failure.  But look at how many people he helped.  He really had a wonderful life.  I think there's a lot of people like him.  I think there are many people connected to Moebius Syndrome among them.

After all---what was it Clarence the angel told him?  No one is a failure who has friends.  And look at how big this network has gotten over the years.

Ding Ding Ding!!!!

Hear that?  A bell has rung.  That means yet another angel just got his wings...

It just may be someone you'll meet in heaven---who will tell you how much you did for him or her.

Have a great fall!!!


Kevin S.