Over the past year, my wife and I have become huge fans of Lance Armstrong. I think it is a combination of experiences and interests that started the admiration. As a cyclist and triathlete (I use those terms loosely) I respect what he is as an athlete and he is a celebrity that we hear a lot about since my wife and I like to spend time in Austin which is where he lives. Although I have always respected and admired him, prior to this year, I was never on the bandwagon as a fan. I didn’t buy a trendy LIVESTRONG bracelet when they first came out and I didn’t pay that much attention to the movement that he was part of. That is different now – I do have the bracelet and plenty of other Nike apparel that is colored in yellow and black with that simple statement written on it. I think what has really changed my outlook and drawn me in to be a huge fan is some of personal experiences that we have had with cancer this year and some of the paths that those experiences have caused us to travel down in our lives. Earlier this year, Rachel and I lost a dear family member to the disease and one of our best friends’ parents had to go through a battle with cancer of his own. There have also been scares in the past few years with people that we know and we have learned of old acquaintances that are either battling or have lost their battle with the disease.
Our friend whose father was battling cancer told us about the LIVESTRONG challenge series and let us know that she was going to raise money for it. We learned that there was an event in Austin, which is where many of Rachel’s relatives live and as a tribute to our lost family member, we rounded up a team to participate in the event. There were two events to choose from, a 5k race, and a bike ride. We choose to do them both and as a result, had to raise $250 apiece.
I LOATH raising money! I am not comfortable asking for it and I feel guilty putting people in a position where they feel they have to donate. Also, because of my job, the pool of people that it is appropriate for me to ask is extremely small. I can’t ask anyone in my organization because they work for me and I don’t want them to feel that they have to give because I am their boss and I can’t ask anyone I deal with in the community because I don’t want anyone to feel like I owe them something. That pretty much limits it to my friends and family. I know my parents dread any type of fundraising event that I get involved with because I always hit them up for at least half of what I am tasked with raising. However, the LIVESTRONG fundraising webpage that came along with my registration was really cool. I decided to post it on Facebook a couple of times to see what happened. I was amazed by the number of people who responded. I was humbled at the generosity that people, some of whom barely knew me, had in their hearts to support a noble cause.
This was something that really motivated me. From then on, the fundraising became fun. It felt like I was a part of something important and something that would make good things happen for others. The event that we participated in raised nearly $4 million and the overall series raised over $8 million. Being at the event and seeing the impact of what we were a part of was very moving. It is something that now excites me and I look forward to the experience next year. It was at that point that I became a huge Lance Armstrong fan.
I have recently finished his book It’s not about the Bike, and would recommend it to anyone. He doesn’t sugar coat anything and gives a very stark look at his upbringing, character flaws, and most notably, his battle through cancer to become one of the world’s greatest athletes. He has a fighter’s spirit that we can all learn from to push ourselves to the limits and not let any person, any obstacle, or anything beat us down. He fought through what would have killed most people, went on to become a champion, and now works to make the world a better place so that people don’t have to go through what he has gone through. Clearly, Lance is not perfect and he shares many of the traits and imperfections that make us all human. But he is, in my opinion, a person to be admired and looked at as a hero.
Lance Armstrong is someone that can give others hope, inspire us to succeed, and serve as a role model to people who are battling through hopeless situations. Why then is it so important to tear him down? For that matter, why is it so important to tear others like him down? It seems that we live in a society that takes much more satisfaction in tarnishing someone and finding ways to vilify them than to focus on the positive and the good that they do. Don’t get me wrong – if it turns out that he was doping to gain an unfair advantage, then it will be a tremendous let down. I am not saying that we should look the other way let the ends justify the means, but I am saying that we should focus on the good rather than the witch hunt.
He is not the only one who this applies to. It seems that we get some sort of wicked satisfaction from getting the dirt or revealing the dark secrets that are buried away in the closet of anyone who is successful. It seems to apply to athletes, politicians, movies stars, and other celebrities. Many of these people have given us reason to be distrustful and I am not saying that we should condone inappropriate behavior, but I don’t know why the focus is always on the negative. I only know one person who has lived a perfect existence and I tend to think that no one else in the history of civilization has a background that would come out squeaky clean if someone really went after them with a malicious intent. Is it because we are jealous? Do we really need to ruin people in order to feel better about ourselves? Are we that insecure with our beliefs that if someone disagrees with us, they become the villain? We have become a nation full of critics and Monday morning quarterbacks. We are taught as young children that it is wrong to spread rumors, yet that is what we love and that is what we do. We love to see people embarrassed, we love to see them squirm and we relish in failure more than we respect success.
We can blame the mass media, the 24 hour news cycle, or the ever piercing eyes of social networking. We can put the responsibility on the shoulders of the pundits, the sportscasters, or the blogosphere, but really the problem lies with the individual. We are all guilty of it. We are all guilty of wanting to get the “dirt.” We have to be careful how we tear people down because the world needs heroes, the world needs role models, and the world needs hope. We need people who have overcome adversity and triumphed in the face of certain defeat that we can look to when we face our own adverse circumstances. We need to foster future generations of leaders who are not afraid to succeed. We cannot discourage excellence and achievement with the fear that critics will pick it apart like buzzards picking clean the bones of their meal. Even Lance Armstrong himself stated “A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. If you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing.” People should certainly be held accountable for their decisions and their actions, but we should also spend less time trying to find the dirty little secrets and more time encouraging the positive.
I’ll quit preaching and go back to writing funny stories about dogs, shoes and mustaches now!
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