Editorial: Balance keeps life rolling along

Just like riding a bike.

It’s how we describe things that are so easy a child can do them. Things that take a little practice and a lot of balance. Things that can’t be forgotten because the muscles remember.

The Rev. Doug Boyd’s whole life is like riding a bike. He rides his almost every day — sun or rain or snow.

He balances saying Mass at St. Joseph, the Bloomfield church that is his home, and ministering to those at UPMC Magee-Womens or UPMC Shadyside or UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The bike is how he gets things done.

“I have always liked hospitals because it’s very spiritual and people are very open to God, to praying,” he said, in a profile this week by the Trib’s JoAnne Klimovich Harrop. “It’s a privilege to be with people a little bit near the time of when they are going to die and to help comfort their families.”

Boyd, 70, still provides that comfort even though he has to keep a bit of social distance in the coronavirus pandemic.

“He interacts with everybody,” said Natalie O’Loughlin, chaplain of UPMC Shadyside. “When he talks to you, you can tell he cares about you. It’s all about you at that moment.

There’s a lesson in this for us all. Boyd’s bike is more than just a mode of transportation. It’s a metaphor for a life well lived.

We are all traveling full-speed through our days. We have our lives at home and at work — which are overlapping a lot lately. We have obligations to our community and our faiths. We have responsibility for taking care of ourselves and taking care of each other.

It’s all about balance, and that’s something everyone could improve. Well, maybe not Boyd. He seems to have it down.

But if our government could keep the balance of the people’s needs and the economy’s demands, it might roll along more smoothly. If our leaders could balance the politics against the duty, they might get more done.

It’s just like riding a bike.