There is an adage about someone not complaining about not having any shoes after he sees someone with no feet. It is just a saying, one of those things that cruises right out of our thoughts almost immediately after we hear it, right?

If that is so, more people need friends like Ray Pini and Tom White.

Pini, Clifton’s town manager, is on the comeback road after narrowly escaping death in a July car crash. Tom White is unknown by folks in Clifton and Greenlee County. He is a longtime friend and former All-American cross country runner at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colo. Tom is presently recovering from a leg amputation. His leg was severely banged up in a motorcycle crash around 1983, shortly after he finished his athletic eligibility.

He became a physician; all the while he was suffering from agonizing pain. Last month, he chose to have the leg removed and get on with his life. It may have been his choice, but it was still a tragedy he had to make that kind of choice.

Ray and Tom do not know each other, but they are kindred spirits. They both represent courage and healing. Both care deeply about other people and tend to turn conversation about them to asking about another’s well-being.

I feel humbled by the way they have each faced and overcome adversity. It is hard to whine about the arthritic pain in my knee and elsewhere when I think about what they have been and are going through. The thought of a knee replacement seems to pale in light of their suffering.

A raging bull could probably not have done to Ray what a head-on crash with a drunk driver in a stolen car did to him. The damage is not only physical. It is deeply emotional. He lost Kathy, his loving wife of 40 years, in that crash. She died instantly, for whatever that is worth.

His family, faith and friends have contributed greatly to his recovery.

Tom has been out of the hospital for a couple of weeks now. He is recovering at his home in Buena Vista, Colo. While he was in a Denver hospital, he was inundated by phone calls and visits from former teammates and many longtime friends. He was upbeat and is already planning to return to bicycle racing; and knowing him, he will probably try running with a prosthetic.

“Hey, this is the first time I’ve been at my running weight in years,” he said from his hospital bed. He kept trying to turn the conversation to my health and well-being, just as Ray did in my conversation with him.

I told Tom I now look more like a beached whale than a runner. He immediately told me not to be so hard on myself and get back into it gradually. I said I have started many times and have not followed through. He offered more nonjudgmental encouragement and made me promise to keep in touch about my progress.

Ray offers similar encouragement. He was in good physical condition when the wreck occurred. That undoubtedly contributed to his survival and miraculous recovery.

Ray is tough. He has to be. He is dealing with his first Christmas without Kathy.

Tom is tough. He is no doubt champing at the bit to get back into action, even if there is deep snow on the ground in Buena Vista.

For me, it is a matter of learning from two people I greatly admire and using whatever wisdom I may have absorbed from them to meet challenges that are by far smaller than those they face and are overcoming.

Somebody once said something about ‘He who conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a city.’ That pretty well describes Ray and Tom.