A love letter to the thief who stole his beautiful brand new titanium bicycle? Yes, and a brilliant one. Mickey Smith, dedicated to the sport he loved best, cycled for fun, for transportation, for giving to his community through Aids/LifeCycle. And just like that, in a flash of a cruel theft, so much of what his life was about came crashing down. Until a friend invited Mickey to go swimming with him as his exercise.
Blessed with a temperament that is not only resilient but able to see silver linings, Mickey took up the swimming offer and discovered a whole new world opening up to him. Not just the swimming, but new relationships and realizations.
And, the first love letter! To the very miscreant who stole from him. It was a flow chart with the catastrophe of the bicycle theft in the center and emanating from that every good thing that happened from this. Not just a love letter to the thief to let him (her?) the good that came from bad, but a love letter to each person on that chart.
A lot of good has befallen Mickey in the 5 years since that thievery, so he decided it was time to write another love letter. To the thief!
Thanks to Youtube you can see the joy in Mickey’s eyes while he talks about this experience and his second letter as an example of the power and joy that comes from looking for and finding the silver lining.
And, if it is easier to read typed out by Mickey, I offer you this because it is a work of art joining forgiveness with gratitude. And love!
“Dear Bicycle Thief,
It’s been five years since I created my new sort of love lever- my mind-map/flow hart of all the good- the good things that came from our encounter. This time I wanted my love letter to be a bit more focused. As you are well aware these are trying times and require swift action. With that thank you. In my reflection and exploration of the positive ways you changed my life, I learned about my magical powers.
My magical power is to see and feel the negative and stay focused on the positive. This power is needed more than ever as people struggle to stay active, engaged and connected. Just like you robbed me of my bicycle, Covid-19 have robbed folks of their sense of community. BUT! I have you to thank to see past that. Armed with my magical power to work through the negative and reflect back the positive, I have been hard at work keeping community together through TogetheRide.
See- you thought me- we can’t let the negative bring us down, because life moves on and we have to there for it. In part because of you my team at AIDS/LifeCycle is able to continue on with TogetheRide- to inspire and connect with friends, family and neighbors to stay active and fundraise to keep our most vulnerable communities healthy through fundraising for programs and services to END HIV/AIDS and promote Health Justice- which means we are also on the frontlines of fighting the spread of Covid-19.
Let me conclude by saying: Thank you! If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be as skilled at navigating these hard times. If it weren’t for you it would be harder for me to inspire 2,000 cyclists and 1,000 volunteers to persist and see past this moment in time. Because of you, I am confident we will reach our revised goal of $5 million and 1.2 million miles in solidarity with the 1.2 million people in the U.S. of A. living with HIV.
Thank you and love you forever.
Yours truly and forever skillfully optimistic,
Mickey Smith
P.S.: I do truly hope you might join us! TogetheRide.org and seriously no hard feelings. Join my team: Team Health Justice”