Arthur C. Clarke once said The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

Personally I like many of his quotes and use them often, but this one kind of made me wonder what lies in store for me ahead. I haven’t written anything in the last couple of days as my personal life really seems to be spiraling down the proverbial rabbit hole and being that I am a big proponent of the old adage ” If you have nothing nice to say then say anything at all” I am finding it quite challenging to muster even the remotest of inspiration to write anything diabetes related, leave alone  the whirling  winds above my head and while this blog is about my diabetic life among other things, am sure no one wants to join me in this funky, foggy dark cloud that seems to be the conclusion of 2010.

Sometimes it seems when one thing goes wrong in life then  a whole litany of things follows suit and At this juncture my life sure is being limited by a whole slew of things.

From being practically homeless, as am now crashing on my friends couch until  I find a new apartment.  I have to start the search afresh coz the one I had lined up  fell through at the last minute and now that  guy seems to not want to refund  my deposit.

On top of that my car decided to blow the  motor yesterday and now I practically have to work, find an apartment,  a new car, Jr starts school on Monday, all that on public transportation which is virtually impossible here in Cleveland.

So I thought to myself that this coincidentally presented a unique opportunity to finish a piece I had been working on last week because it was the  perfect  yin to my yang, my polar opposite as it may because it does put my diabetic life in clear perspective.

The diabetics in this piece are living their  lives in the most extreme of circumstances and from their eyes, mine would clearly be a walk in the park so I will too be forced  look at my situation through their eyes and hopefully this will permeate the misery that is my current state of affairs.

This  is the case of  one Charlie Kimball, @charliekimball on twitter, a professional Race car driver in  Open wheel  Racing,

• Can you say Imagine managing diabetes at 200 miles an hour?
• Or the challenge of testing your blood glucose levels  at break neck speeds?
• Having to inject Insulin in a flash?

To many of us diabetes management is seen as a monumental task in its own right, so Charlie must be accomplishing such a feat by doing it in these extreme conditions on a daily basis wouldn’t you say?

I am a true fan of open wheel racing , I have season tickets for the races at the  Mid-Ohio race course and I was more heartbroken when the Cleveland Grand Prix, was scrapped than when Lebron James bolted town.

So I have quite a unique perspective from that stand point on what the man is going through and what makes this story even rarer is the fact that Charlie is not just surviving through the sport but he is actually dominating.

If someone like Charlie Kimball would not let diabetes prevent him from living his life one 2 mile oval at time (by the way Charlie was diagnosed as an adult, after he had already started his racing career, so he is still adjusting to the diabetic life on top of the racing ) what excuse do we mere mortals have.

You can read more about Charlie Kimball and the work he does for diabetes awareness thanks to Novo Nordisk at an interview he gave recently to the diabetic blog  a sweet life.

LONG ROAD from Cairo to Cape Town, is a 3-part documentary by Slipstreamer and Type 1 diabetic adventurer Jonny White. It follows Jonny’s 1200 mile bike ride from Cairo to Capetown and the extreme challenges it takes to complete such a journey with diabetes.

Here is a few words  from Leah McLaren of  The Globe and Mail Newspaper who followed this rag tag adventure from inception to its conclusion.

The Tour d’Afrique

The Tour d’Afrique is frightening, and not because it involves bare-bones travel and bush camping across some of the most remote, impoverished and historically unstable countries in the world (from the sphinxes of Egypt to the beaches of Cape Town through Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Botswana). The TDA is frightening because the entire length of this fascinating, frustrating, gorgeous and confounding continent is traversed, over four and half months, on the back of a two-wheeled, pedal-powered contraption known as a bicycle.

I’m going to ride my bike across Africa. Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? Rolls easily off the tongue. Gets a positive reaction at a cocktail party. But there’s only one problem: You actually have to ride your bike across Africa. And like most things in life worth doing, that’s a hell of a lot harder than it sounds.

To say that any sane  man would partake on such a journey is beyond words, add the 800 pound gorilla that is diabetes on their back makes it  incomprehensible and kind of makes me look like a wuss complaining about my daily struggles,  I have a roof over my head for the moment, hopefully I can find an apartment soon and a cheap car to get me around for now until I can get myself situated and I have to be thankful for that.

Diabetes is such a challenging disease but hopefully the above examples have shown you that it doesn’t have to be limiting as well.  Do what you want to do with your life,  be it daily struggles or an overall life path, do not let diabetes stop you.