I just got a package in the mail.
It is a Jay Cullen memorial cycling jersey.
He was a close friend of several of my friends. I know I met him on rides once or twice. We were so "connected" through FB, I had his post running on my FB home page as news. I remember several of him attending biking events for his son.
I was catching up with one of our mutual friends on a bike ride when unbeknownst to us, Jay was crashing in the next county over.
At any rate, he was one of the Virginia state police helicopter pilots who died during the recent Charlottesville Va. protest.
I was going to post this to the ultimate bike thread, but I felt this would be a better place.
"Reason overtakes fear."
If there was a snowball's chance in hell of reason overtaking fear, he would have won hands down. In the end, the helicopter broke, and no amount of reason would have saved the situation. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It makes me think of all my dumbassery, and how it was just that- dumb. He was doing his job. If not at the C-ville protest, the copter would have snapped on the next flight.
Receiving this jersey tonight is a grim reminder that reason alone does not conquer all.
