Re: [Paddlewise] Hope you're doing ok.

On Sunday 25 February 2007 02:22, Doug wrote:
> However, I'm not a holy roller despite some exposure to Pentecostals and
> faith healers earlier; I am a man of simple faith under no illusion that
> my relationship with God just might be a anthropomorphic delusion. I
> fight to believe every day, (while it comes to my wife as naturally as
> breathing). I see myself as a creature in a cosmically fantastical
> universe and remain grateful for each day I'm given as a created being
> residential on an incredibly beautiful, sometimes harsh, but
> nevertheless wonderful planet.

Glad to hear you're on the mend! I had my scare (if a life-threatening
condition should be called that), at the prime age of 37 and a half, when
a Scottish nurse ran into my motorbike in Scotland. She planned to brake
but hit the accelerator instead. Thank God for Scottish medicare, and that 
I was close to a major hospital, where the hard-working staff, of Irish, 
English, Aussie, Indian, South African, Jordanian, and not least, Scottish 
nurses, orderlies and doctors, who all did their darn best to save my life 
and my left leg (a doctor later described my left leg as looking like it 
had first been shot to pieces with a shotgun and then mashed into 
smaller pieces with a mallet)!  

After two months I was well enough to be transported back to Sweden ...

After a lot of extra surgery - spanning six years -  and years of training
with physios and others, I eventually was back on the job, halftime to 
begin with, eight years later ...

I did come out of it a better man, no doubt, if with one leg shorter,
with a cheerier outlook on life, as I now knew a bit about what's 
important to worry about, and what's not. Trekking, something 
I've done a lot in my youth, was out - period - and I haven't 
returned to motorbiking, even if there probably wouldn't be 
any practical problems. 

After I started to have slight shoulder problems we, the wife and I 
(married her five years ago), came to talk about paddling, which I 
had done years before - not much though. Paddling is good for 
your upper body strength, we knew that, which I needed. I had 
years before, on a whim, become a part of a pseudo-scientific 
(95% of us were amateurs), three-week lazy sea paddling expedition, 
in mostly perfect weather, using naval Kleppers (and some hardshells). 

Since then I knew that I liked travelling in this relaxed way, but the 
circumstances (lack of funds, basically) had led me to other 
interests, like model flying. 

So, about ten years after the Scottish incident, I returned to paddling. 
With a bit of inherited money  we bought a brand new Klepper Aerius II, as 
I knew we could stow that into our newly acquired bedroom cupboard, when 
not in use. I also knew these odd contraptions to be extremely safe, as 
the old tired naval Kleppers mentioned before had all been Aerius IIs. I 
knew there were other types of folding kayaks, even paddled once in a 
Pouch (or something similar), but I knew I wanted a Klepper, period!

We went paddling and were having a ball, me and my 'new' wife (first one, 
actually), who to my delight proved to be an very accomplished paddler, 
far better than me, having spent many summers paddling canoes with her 
first husband (R.I.P.), kids, and a big dog, in the extensive lake systems 
of southern Sweden.

Not being a religious person I have thanked Britain many times for saving 
my life that rainy May day 1990 outside Perth, when everything went wrong.
As the South African intern put it: "You should have been dead, having lost 
all that blood, but some devil up there thought otherwise!"

And even if I didn't become religious, in the normal sense, it gave me
a deeper feeling for life, friendship and kindness. It is so easy to be 
harsh, cynic, whining, and know-all. It is much more difficult to be 
humble, cheerful and friendly, especially when the circumstances, 
or people, are nasty. 

I know Doug as one of the cheerful ones, always kind and friendly towards 
others - a compassionate man, even before the problems he's had recently! 
Only wish all were!

Tord S Eriksson,
Sweden
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