Band Aids

I've been thinking a little about quick fixes versus getting to the root of the problem. While I was talking to my dad yesterday, he mentioned having scratched himself with a tree branch while working in the orchard. Due to his medications, his blood doesn't clot like it used to, and he ended up with blood on his arm and his shirt before he noticed. He found a band aid in his truck, and eventually stopped the bleeding. Band aids may be something he carries around now, to compensate for the changed clotting ability his blood has because of medication. In this case, a band aid was really what he needed. The root cause of bleeding may have been preventable, but was not unusual, and will probably be a re-occurring incident. Problem fixed.

San Antonio is now the 7th fattest city in the US. While that's an improvement (we were #3 last year), it's still not great. I heard a proposed solution on the radio this morning. At a YMCA on the south side of town, bicycles will be given away in order to encourage an active life style. Those who receive free bikes will have a 6 month check up to see if they've been using the bicycles. My guess is that the bikes will be taken with good intentions, but when city dwellers realize how terrible biking in San Antonio is, they will hide the bikes in a corner of their garage and give up. Within weeks. I say this because I tried to bike to work for several months. I certainly live within a reasonable biking distance, and had no problem with the physical effort, in fact, I enjoyed it. The problem was the lack of infrastructure for bikers. There are no bike lanes in most of the city, in fact there are few shoulders on the roads and practically no sidewalks once you leave neighborhoods and get onto main roads. San Antonio drivers are terrible to begin with. Add bikes and the equation becomes exponentially worse. Inexperienced bikers expect traffic to yield to them, drivers unused to and not expecting bikes are surprised and angry at the lack of courtesy shown by bikers, and because they are so exposed, bikers are at risk for injury or death. I can't remember how many people told me stories about bikers being hit and left by the side of the road before I gave up biking to work, but I decided my safety was more important than my desire to save on gas money and be fit. The bikes being given away are a sorry excuse for a band aid in an attempt to fix San Antonio's fat status. Lifestyle changes are needed. If the city powers that be want people to get out and be fit (bike, walk, etc.), San Antonio city structure should encourage that lifestyle. I know that changing city structure is more expensive than giving away a few bikes, I'm just saying I believe in approaching the problem from a broader view.

Lastly, a couple of people have apologized to me recently. One for an action he took which he thought offended me, and another for holding a grudge about something I said that, unbeknownst to me, hurt her feelings. The first instance hadn't really offended me, though I had thought the actions taken were inappropriate. While the second didn't remember what exactly I'd said, I'm sure she remembered how it made her feel. Holding on to those feelings were hurting her more, and asking forgiveness allowed her to start healing. Genuine apologies are more than a band aid. Yet these two instances made me wonder if there was anything I could have done to avoid the hurt completely. Was what I said to her unfeeling or thoughtless? I don't think anyone likes to find out they've hurt someone they care about, yet we do it often. Why is it so easy to offend and be offended?