Slow me down, Lord

At the beginning of this school year, I had the pleasure of meeting a new freshman student, named Frank Kane. I met him and his family on Freshman Move-In Day. We had an immediate connection because they were from Colorado (don't run into a lot of people from Colorado here at Rockhurst). I had a great opening conversation with his dad and then had to go on my way to help other freshmen moving in.



I'm going to step away briefly just to say that over the past couple of months, I have been particularly frustrated with the condition of my back. I have been dealing with back problems since I was a sophomore in high school, and things have not improved really at all since then, despite numerous doctor's visits, treatments, and countless hours of physical therapy. Nothing has provided me with any type of lasting relief.



Enter Frank Kane. Frank was born with cerebral palsy. For the most part, he has to walk around with crutches everywhere he goes. Not once have I seen his spirits affected by this. I was lucky enough to have gotten the chance to spend some one-on-one time with Frank this weekend, and we talked a little bit about each of our conditions. I was truly moved and inspired by outlook. Everyday, I take for granted the simple blessing of being able to walk, free of any dependence on anything such as crutches. Frank carries this cross everyday, and yet, he said something to me yesterday that I have been trying to convince myself of for so long; something on which he seems to have an incredible grasp. He said to me, "It could be worse."



There has been a song stuck in my head lately, "I'm in a hurry to get things done, oh I rush and rush until life's no fun. All I really gotta do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry and don't know why." I went shopping with Frank yesterday, and it took longer than I normally would have liked to have been at Price Chopper; however, I so enjoyed his company, the time spent with each other was really awesome.



He played soccer with us yesterday. And now I am left speechless as to what more I can say about him. Thank you, Frank.