Aspects of Character
Over the past weekend, I had the privilege of being part of something much bigger, more important that most of what I generally deal with on a daily basis
A biker rally to help benefit victims of school shootings provided insight into the diversity of character and how so many different people can help in their own ways.
You are probably aware of the week in the U.S. where there were three shootings at schools, in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Living in Denver, I was more than interested in the shooting that occurred in Bailey, Colorado.
Following that shooting, an idea was created to hold a parade for the victim of that shooting, Emily Keyes, who apparently was a big fan of parades. One unique aspect of this parade was that it was for bikers, so 5,000 bikers, including me and my wife, rode in this 40-mile parade that went from Columbine High School (alas, the site of another school shooting) to Platte Canyon High School, up in the nearby mountains outside Denver.
What I noticed as we met in the morning and heard from the organizers and parents of victims of both tragedies, was the openness of all these people to help out. Now there were many hard-core bikers there, with the long ZZ Top beards and tattoos, and many weekend bikers, such as we are, who may wear suit and ties during the week.
It was an eye-opener for the cliché, "You can't judge a book by its cover," seeing these thousands of people devoting their Saturday to spend six to ten hours on this event.
Additionally, there was the character of the people along the parade route, who had parked their cars in highway turnouts or along the road, and stood with signs and banners for us in the parade, expressing their thanks, blessings, and love. When we got to Platte Canyon High School, it seemed like the entire town had showed up to feed the bikers. There were burgers, dogs, Sloppy Joes, lasagna, gumbo, and tons of chips and cookies and gallons of water and soft drinks.
It was hard not to be emotionally touched in some way by such an experience, and it was also inspiring for me to look back at some of my unpublished and unfinished scripts to see if there's anything in there that could help out this issue of school safety.
