Adam: Man Not Machine

I walked into Full City to meet this young man who hangs out on my Facebook. I knew his first name and a bit about him from his writing and comments on rickdancer.com.

I looked around the coffee shop, glancing to see if someone’s face matched the thumbnail that shows up on my page. To my surprise he was already waiting for me.

Adam is 6’2” and weighs 172 pounds but you’d never know that unless you ask him. Adam sees the world from a perspective of about 4’2”.

In Hebrew the name Adam means “Man” and yet much of humanity fails to see this man but instead sees the machine that gives him mobility.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised to see Adam sitting there in his wheelchair. I guess I wasn’t expecting it. He never said anything about the chair in our chats on FB but why should he.

Adam compares his life to a game of chess. In the game every piece (man) (Adam) has a role. Every piece has a purpose. Adam understands both.

As we were talking Adam said; “most people don’t see me they see my chair.”

Guilty as charged.

Why, when we look at someone like Adam, do we fail to see the person but instead the condition he is in? As we continued to talk Adam told me most people are afraid to touch or even shake his hand. He told me it surprised him when I reached to shake his hand. Adam can’t raise his hand very high so it took some uncomfortable effort to make that happen. He told me it was the right thing to do.

Adam reads my cycling blogs and says they’ve encouraged him to get out of the house. He takes his wheelchair on long rides around town. He rode  from out by Autzen Stadium all the way to 13th and High for our meeting. Adam understands his life is a gift and that at the age of 24 he has outlived the doctors expectations by five years.

Adam is humble and vulnerable. He has to be or at least he’s had to learn to be that way. He needs people to help him and says it’s not always easy. But I think his humility and vulnerability have drawn him closer to God. I wonder that those aren’t two qualities we must attain in order to find the road to the Kingdom of God?

I walked away wondering what it would be like to never have people touch me? To have people actually be afraid to shake my hand. I thought to myself of all the times I have done that to people, not just in wheelchairs but folks who scare me or make me uncomfortable. I walked away from our two hour talk with a clearer picture of myself.

Adam is not a machine. Adam is not a guy in a wheelchair. Adam is a man and it’s time we as a culture start seeing him that way.

As I sit back and think of our conversation I’m convinced the road to God’s Kingdom is paved with Humility and Vulnerability. Adam has a great understanding of who God is and can show us how to find the path,  if we can just humble ourselves to notice.

2 Comments

• 
  Daniel Martin July 9, 2009 at 9:18 pm

  Hello Rick, and other readers of this blog. To say that I know this man Adam would be somewhat misleading. I met Adam though a different on-line venue, but over the past few months we have chated, both by text and voice. I have not had the pleasure of meeting him in person, as we are seperated by the entire USA.

  I understand your reaction to him in full. I have been affected in much the same way. Getting to know Adam is like getting to know yourself. You see, he has that ability, to bring out the best in you, to make you see things about yourself in a different light, and to completely dismantle the stereotypes we place on others with disablities.

  I can honestly say that knowing Adam has changed how I view many things, and for this I am thankful. He and I have had many conversations comprising many hours on topics ranging from the mundane of everyday life to the deeply spiritual that make it hard to believe he is only 24. He sees through the eyes of a much wiser person, one who has felt hurt deeply and has emerged a stronger person for it, and one who has the ability to love with the strongest emotion.

  I too once saw Adam as a machine, text and voice on the otherside of a box processing ones and zeros, but the past few months have made me see the value in two people investing time in each other even when there is a chance they will never meet face to face. The past few months have replaced his machine facade with a real person. You are correct…Adam is a man, a good man, and he is a man who is my friend.

  This world could use more men like Adam. Men who are seen for who they are, not their physical attributes, and men who also choose to look past the shortcomings of those of us who may judge too quickly.

  Thank you for writing this blog about my friend, Adam…a good man.
• 
  Daniel Martin July 9, 2009 at 11:18 pm

  Hello Rick, and other readers of this blog. To say that I know this man Adam would be somewhat misleading. I met Adam though a different on-line venue, but over the past few months we have chated, both by text and voice. I have not had the pleasure of meeting him in person, as we are seperated by the entire USA.

  I understand your reaction to him in full. I have been affected in much the same way. Getting to know Adam is like getting to know yourself. You see, he has that ability, to bring out the best in you, to make you see things about yourself in a different light, and to completely dismantle the stereotypes we place on others with disablities.

  I can honestly say that knowing Adam has changed how I view many things, and for this I am thankful. He and I have had many conversations comprising many hours on topics ranging from the mundane of everyday life to the deeply spiritual that make it hard to believe he is only 24. He sees through the eyes of a much wiser person, one who has felt hurt deeply and has emerged a stronger person for it, and one who has the ability to love with the strongest emotion.

  I too once saw Adam as a machine, text and voice on the otherside of a box processing ones and zeros, but the past few months have made me see the value in two people investing time in each other even when there is a chance they will never meet face to face. The past few months have replaced his machine facade with a real person. You are correct…Adam is a man, a good man, and he is a man who is my friend.

  This world could use more men like Adam. Men who are seen for who they are, not their physical attributes, and men who also choose to look past the shortcomings of those of us who may judge too quickly.

  Thank you for writing this blog about my friend, Adam…a good man.