All About You FRIDAY – The Unseen Things

One of the messiest things I do as a bike mechanic for Free Bikes 4 Kids is a thing I don’t necessarily have to do. It’s not on the checklist and nobody would fault me if I just skipped the step. But as I take apart the hub at the center of the wheel and the grease covers my hands, I think to myself it’s the unseen things that matter most.

In a couple of months, a kid is going to choose a bike I’ve helped restore. He’ll eye the paint job and admire the color or theme. Spiderman bikes are the most popular with their web-shaped basket, with Paw Patrol coming a close second. Or maybe it will be the pink color that draws her eye and there will be a bell on it or a baby seat in the back perfect for a doll. I guarantee, no kid will pick a bike because I overhauled the hub.

But I’ll know the story. I’ll know that when I took off the front wheel and spun it in my hands, the crunching made me frown. And so I take it all apart. Clean every ball-bearing. Grease the hub and screw the cones back on. I adjust it make sure it’s loose enough to spin but not so loose that the axle wobbles. That’s the hardest part.

It isn’t the most glamorous part of the bike overhaul, but knowing that wheel spins like a dream makes me smile from the inside out. It’s an unseen thing.

Reminds me of a story I read this week about a pastor’s wife who played the persona we all would expect. She was polite and happy. Always loving and smiling. The demands of her husband’s job took their toll. They didn’t make a lot of money but she smiled through the poverty and burnout. Her exterior betrayed the unhappiness she felt inside.

Everyone was shocked when they got a divorce. She left the confines of her marriage and the church and became a fitness influencer. She racked up popularity and likes. She thought she had found freedom in leaving the church and her marriage. Instead she just found another character to play. Empty at the core, her eyes never changed. Through the smiles and popularity, her eyes remained blank, the author wrote, “because she was never there.”

She was diagnosed with cancer and a month later, she was gone. And here’s the horror of the story. It didn’t matter what everyone saw on the outside. You can die having impressed everyone and not be known by anyone. At the end of the day, it’s the unseen things that matter most.

Maybe that was a stretch to go from a bicycle hub to a struggling middle-aged woman. Or maybe not.

Overhauling the center just might be the best part of the story. The most important part of your story. The unseen thing.

It’s been a long week. Don’t forget to celebrate.

Until next time…