Being Left Behind

"It is not only selfish but also irresponsible and dangerous to leave the weakest members of your group to fend for themselves." —Clark R. Burbridge

I've been thinking about the above quote for the past week, mainly because it won't leave me alone. Talk about persistence,  the quote even wriggled into my dreams, strange dreams about mountain biking, which I have never, ever attempted before. (Bikes are not my friends anymore. Too many crashes and not enough band-aids, I guess.)

Anyway, the quote is about mountain biking, specifically when riding in groups up and down mountain trails. Clark, who is an experienced mountain biker, gives a suggestion about not leaving the weakest members of the group at the end of the line: Put them in the middle and have strong riders in the front and back.

This got to me thinking about experiences where I have been left to fend for myself. On one particular hike with my singles ward, a leader stayed with me for about five minutes before realizing that I was a slow hiker. He then took off to catch up with his children, which was fine, I suppose, except that action left me all alone. For nearly 25 minutes, I didn't see anyone on the trail, not even hikers walking down. Talk about some anxiety. All sorts of thoughts came into my head, especially about the 10-minute mark of being left alone. When I finally caught up to someone, I stuck to them like glue, and fortunately, they were ambling along at a rate that I could keep up. 

Now, I'm not a terrible hiker—I'm just slow—and I'll eventually get to the destination. I wonder what I would have done if something had happened during those 25 minutes. Would have anyone heard me shouting? I don't know. Everyone seemed so eager to get to the end that they forgot about me. A terrible feeling to have.


Contrast that to my recent cross-skiing trip where Kyle, my brother-in-law, stayed with me, even though there were only four of us and I was in the back. I really appreciated his concern for how I was doing, and he even gave me tips to ski better. That in turn made me feel more confident. And the day turned out to be a success.

All of these thoughts boiled down to this one: that some people have been left to fend for themselves, and perhaps in some way, I can be the one to help them, to encourage them, to be their guide for  a little bit. I know what it's like to be left behind and it's not fun. So instead of moping what's happened in the past, I can do something good in the future. And in the process help someone else who's been left behind. 


Okay, subconscious, no more dreams about mountain biking. All right?