If there’s any way for you to buy a ticket for Saturday’s special premiere screening of “The Way Bobby Sees It” – do it. Before the show’s sold out.
The documentary is about 45-year-old Bobby McMullen of Redding. The former Central Valley High School graduate’s love of extreme sports earned him countless doctors’ visits to treat broken bones, often simultaneous, including arms, wrists, collarbones and ribs. He’s missing a toe and part of his pinky finger, and has had numerous concussions.
I saw the trailer for “The Way Bobby Sees It” and just about jumped out of my skin. I watched, horrified, as McMullen rode his bike down the kind of steep, rocky narrow shale-and-shard-covered path with stomach-flipping drop-offs most people would only navigate in their nightmares. “The Way Bobby Sees It” follows McMullen as he races a 17-mile downhill mountain bike course in Downieville, considered the most treacherous in the country.
Did I mention McMullen is legally blind?
Complications from diabetes he’d had since he was a kid robbed him of his eyesight just after he started law school. Then came kidney failure, years of dialysis and two kidney and pancreas transplants.
But those illnesses and physical ailments are not what McMullen’s about.
In fact, when you have a conversation with him, it’s as if those things are minor inconveniences. What’s more, McMullen talks as if he’s the luckiest guy he knows.
And that’s what makes McMullen’s story so incredible.
He and I spoke on the phone the other evening. He was recovering from a flu bug, which, for a transplant patient, has the potential for more risk than even the most extreme downhill bike course or the hairiest ski run.
I wish now I’d had the presence of mind when we started talking to mark a piece of paper every time McMullen used the words lucky, thankful and/or grateful.
Over and over again.
Grateful to live in the north state.
Grateful to be alive.
Grateful for the love and support from his family , friends and community.
Grateful for the physical ability to push himself to the limit, which includes racing against able-bodied athletes.
Grateful that independent filmmakers Jason Watkins and Wendy Todd didn’t just perfectly tell his life story in just one hour, but they produced a film that appeals to not just extreme sports enthusiasts, but any living person who’s ever experienced a single setback.
Grateful for the opportunity to achieve a goal he had way back in high school, but in a way he never imagined. At the time, he wanted to be a lawyer.
“The idea was to help people – my family and friends, and to affect people’s lives in a positive way,” he said. “Now I look back on it, and I don’t think I could have affected people as a lawyer or a teacher or a counselor, the way I do now.”
Major understatement, and no wonder. McMullen doesn’t just walk the talk. He sprints it, rides it, jumps it, and then keeps going, as if he’s in a race with himself.
“Tomorrow’s a long ways away sometimes, and everything can change overnight,” he said.
“I’ve always believed that when it comes to obstacles, it’s not what happens to us, but what you do with it. Life is for everybody. We all have obstacles, but this is the best we have – here and now.”
What: Premiere screening of “The Way Bobby Sees It” – a documentary that features Redding’s own Bobby McMullen and independent filmmakers Jason Watkins and Wendy Todd, all of whom will be on hand to introduce the film and answer questions.
Where: Cascade Theatre on Market Street in downtown Redding
When: Sat. March 8, doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m.
What else: Open seating tickets cost $10 and may be purchased online or in person at the Cascade Theatre box office, Carnegies, Chain Gang Bike Shop, The Bike Shop, Bikes Etc., Village Cycle, Sports LTD and Holiday Market on Placer Avenue.
A bonus: click the triangle below to hear Valerie Ing-Miller’s incredibly interesting interview with McMullen on Jefferson Public Radio.
[audio:http://www3.jeffnet.org/audio/Bobby%20McMullen%203-4-08.mp3]
