One of my sons decided to ride a bike cross-country to the east coast starting in Montana. This trip became a truly growing experience for him. Upon his return, he shared a few of his experiences.
One day he was out in the middle of Wyoming pedaling up a long slow grade of some 10 or 15 miles. To make matters worse, he was working against a headwind and the shoulder on the road was narrow. As the 18 wheelers passed him, he became both frightened and frustrated at his predicament and slow progress.
With no relief in sight, he looked up the long grade to the distant horizon and became angry with it all. Or rather he decided his best choice was to be mad. And with that, he began to rant and yell as pedaled his bike up the hill against the wind.
At the very peak of his raging, with his mouth open, a large bug flew into the back of his throat and began to gag and choke him. The uninvited guest instantly stopped the rampage. Unable to either swallow the bug or spit it out, he pulled to the side of the narrow shoulder, stopped, and went to great lengths to finally dislodge the unwanted creature.
Later, he told me he had learned a very important lesson about life from this incident.
“When things get tough,” he said, “Keep your mouth shut!”
This story is a new twist on the old adage, “Don’t put your foot in your mouth.” Don’t let a bug get stuck there either!