Time. It winks, blinks, clicks and pops. Time steals our lives away when we're not looking. It imposes order on the deserts and entropy to roadkill. Time is at once expansive and constricting, and just when we think we've controlled it, it slips away again. Hold water in your cupped hand and watch it trickle away. Time moves away from us like the water does, try as we might to hold it still.
Our moments move past us as we squeeze our eyes shut and wish for a rewind mechanism. We pin down the bits of our lives with photos, memories and words. We try to delineate the moments and years as they run together like peas and gravy. The inexorability of time means nothing until someone you know and love passes away. Suddenly, the tattoo of reality imprints onto your thoughts, and you now understand fully what we are all up against. The bottomless pit of time holds a bedrock moment for all in equal measure and suddenly the phrase live in the moment sounds less cliched.
This blog is not about time, it is about a bicycle ride designed to honor two extraordinary women. Ride for Awareness 2007 is for two mothers who never met, but who infused just the right mix of character and personality in two of their children. Those two children grew up, lived their lives, then bumped into each other and got married. The two mothers loved their kids very much. They loved them so much that when they each got sick, they did everything they knew to protect all of their children from having to say good bye. Both mothers passed away within 17 months of each other, both from complications stemming from pancreatic cancer:
Our moments move past us as we squeeze our eyes shut and wish for a rewind mechanism. We pin down the bits of our lives with photos, memories and words. We try to delineate the moments and years as they run together like peas and gravy. The inexorability of time means nothing until someone you know and love passes away. Suddenly, the tattoo of reality imprints onto your thoughts, and you now understand fully what we are all up against. The bottomless pit of time holds a bedrock moment for all in equal measure and suddenly the phrase live in the moment sounds less cliched.
This blog is not about time, it is about a bicycle ride designed to honor two extraordinary women. Ride for Awareness 2007 is for two mothers who never met, but who infused just the right mix of character and personality in two of their children. Those two children grew up, lived their lives, then bumped into each other and got married. The two mothers loved their kids very much. They loved them so much that when they each got sick, they did everything they knew to protect all of their children from having to say good bye. Both mothers passed away within 17 months of each other, both from complications stemming from pancreatic cancer:
Nina Tackett
born Feb. 9th 1937
died June 12th, 2004
Phylis Panagos
born Sept. 9th, 1931
died Nov. 12th, 2005
This ride and blog, as well as all the planning and work is a celebration of Nina and Phylis. It is our way of saying thank you for providing more than we deserved, and encouraging us in anything we thought important. It is a thank you for all the bills paid, dishes washed, laughter and idle conversations that now shine like fine crystal in our minds. It is our humble way of paying past dues for a lesson in dignity that very few are qualified to teach. Nina and Phylis wrote the lesson plan. Thank you for your wisdom and love.
Over and out
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