A Tribute to Lance...

"I want to die at a hundred years old with an American flag on my back and the star of Texas on my helmet, after screaming down an Alpine descent on a bicycle at seventy-five miles per hour. I want to cross one last finish line as my stud wife and ten children applaud, and then I want to lie down in a field of those famous French sunflowers and gracefully expire: the perfect contradiction to my once anticipated poignant early demise."

The Lance Armstrong Autobiography is NOT about the bike, as he so rightly puts it.

A less privileged childhood
The glimmer being his Mom,
A wholesome manifestation
Of grit and dauntless spirit.
A broken, depressing home,
Wherever,whenever he turned
He met crystal clear obscurity
Yet,He stayed, withstood, Won.
When life hinted a rosy tint
But- “Rose” became “Sore”
The knee buckling head ache
Cancer.Testicular Cancer.
The fatal pronouncement
Debilitated the physique
Incapacitated the soul.
He was ruptured-
Ah..the throes of despair.
But He wanted to fight it.
It sure takes more than something
To survive the vicissitudes-
Physical,moral and psychological.
The true ones held close and tight
The rest abandoned, shamelessly.
He was unflinching, almost buoyant-
Those stray moments of depression
And the odd occasion when agony hovered,
He had a near perfect bunch of folks
To lift him, to talk to him;
To rejuvenate the sagging morale.
And thus the travails were braved
The Enemy was finally in shambles!
The Cancer was an experience,
It enhanced a transformation.
The once brash..the once volatile
And perennially temperamental
With the proverbial gush and rush-
Had slowed down and rightly seasoned,
And positively mellowed down.
It was an education of its own.
A test of the strength of spirit.
And then there was this ephemeral phase,
Of wilderness and madness;
When all seemed hazy and aimless-
The strain of chemotherapy “strain”
Sapping the once dogged fortitude.
But there are true angels in this place,
To shore up when most crucial.
And then there was The Tour-
Any Cyclist’s “Dream” dream;
Mate, It’s known as Life’s metaphor-
The Tour de France, an ultimate test.
He who had a troubled childhood,
He who had a not-so-blissful youth,
He who bonded with The Fatal cancer,
He who had a paltry chance of survival,
WON THE TOUR DE FRANCE !
And six times at that.
If This is not inspiring, What is?

Lance Armstrong’s autobiography is one book which will leave a HUGE, indelible mark in the minds and the hearts of the readers. There’s nothing in this wide universe to beat the resilience of the mind and Lance’s life is ample testimony to this well known but sadly not as well realized fact of life. And yes, the story of kissing the pinnacle of glory is never a fairy tale!