Shivering with cold and fright, he lifts his binoculars and looks out over the starlight  night embracing  the cold North Atlantic Sea. 19 years old, the first time away from home…

Suddenly he sees it…a ripple in the water quickly approaching the merchant ship…a U boat torpedo ready to strike home!

Moments later an explosion… 

he is knocked to his feet and suddenly surrounded by freezing cold. 

Panic sets in, he flounders and sinks below the waves along with the rest of his crew …their bodies never found. Empty life rafts bob uselessly amongst the debris…

9/21/1940…a convoy 0f 42 merchant ships …11 sink and hundreds drown.

Their Guardian angels weep, tears turning to ice as they touch the waves below. 

The British Authorities realized that most of those perished could have they been saved if they had not panicked and floundered …death from paralyzing fear. 

And so was born the School of Outward Bound…an ocean survival training which markedly reduced the loss of human life in the next few years of the War to come.

After WW2 the educational Courses of Outward Bound grew and now are found all over the World. Their goal? To teach individuals how to recognize that inner fears and insecurities  limit and hold us all from moving forward in every walk of life. 

I have attended three such courses, through the mountains of North Carolina, a Winter survival in the wilderness of Maine and finally in open 30 foot pulling boats in the North Atlantic off the coast of Maine for 10 days…most terrifying for me a summer storm …no land in sight with 40 foot waves crashing around. 

As strengthening as Outward Bound is the experience is just an open window on one’s abilities to survive challenging unknown times. 

Years ago after my first ride for MS from Bar Harbor to Seattle I assured all that I’d never ride like that again. I was soon challenged to “get out of my comfort zone.” 

The more I thought about it the more I realized that Outward Bound showed the way but only by repeatedly “getting out of the comfort zone “ can one truly reach their potential…so I rode again and again.

In one week I will be riding from Norfolk Virgina to San Francisco California…again challenging myself.

A thousand years ago in Syria blacksmiths developed a near perfect metal called Damascus steel.  Harder than anything known at the time it still remains a metal worker’s miracle product…formed and pounded in forges so intense to challenge the human skills.

So too are these rides such forges which through time pound, push, mold  the soul towards its more perfect form. 

Each time I ride I become something more…

There will come a time when I will finally be too old to be further formed…that is a reality of life. 

And when I pass my Guardian Angel will drop a tear but not from grief but from joy at a life fulfilled. And the tears will turn not to North Atlantic Ice but rather nurture beautiful flowers below.