A Million Miles In A Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

Content Warning: This section includes discussion of suicide, addiction, animal cruelty, illness, and death.

During the bike ride, Miller met a man in his 50s named Mike Barrow, whom the group called Iron Mike. Mike told many stories about his past. He was married four times, and he failed because he lacked resolve. He was a nurse and developed an addiction to drugs. Mike had an affair with a colleague. When she left him, Mike kidnapped her cat, called the woman, and squeezed the cat on the phone. The woman called the police, and Mike was arrested. He admitted he was a “real mess.” Mike explained to Miller’s bike group that his father died by suicide when he was a kid and that God helped him heal and change. He participated in the bike ride to show himself that he could finish it and was not a “quitter.”

Miller refers to a friend named Jim who lost his 27-year-old wife, Janice, to cancer. Miller spent time with Jim as he and his children prepared for her death. Miller understood the man’s “deep well of love,” suggesting that people realize how capable of love they are when they lose loved ones and a story is ending (222).