What kind of a country do we live in? I have a few moments in my life where my perspective changes.
One of these moments was midweek when I went along with a microphone to interview a young lad called Stephen Payton in Livingston for this morning's radio programme.
There he was training around a track like there was no tomorrow. Who is Stephen Payton? Well, Stephen Payton has three Olympic gold medals from the 100, 200 and 400 metres disabled games in Atlanta.
After the games he was struck down by one of these horrific post viral tiredness syndromes where he slept for 16 hours a day and suffered immense pain. But no-one can ever take away the fact that he has three golds, oh, and by the way, he has a world record too and would have broken another one if he hadn't raised his arms in celebration well before the line.
A local Livingston lad, he has a degree in physics and computing, and from what I saw of him he is a serious young lad, bright, conscientious, but above all a decent bloke. And you know what? He can't get any sponsorship, and he can't get a job.
Tell me, how does this world work? I am staggered that a young man can go to some public facility in the middle of one of our new towns, train by himself, beat the rest of the world, and get absolutely no recognition for it from Scottish people.
There was naive little me thinking we were a good country too.
This weekend sees a big athletics meet he will be involved in. Good luck to him, and surely, for crying out loud, there must be some backers out there.
qNext week is a tough one for the Scottish rugby team, having, as they do, to contend with the high tackling Fijians who have been coached by New Zealander Brad Johnstone.
It was the official end of the Royal Bank of Scotland's 16 year sponsorship of Scottish rugby on Thursday night when Princess Anne was at the Sheraton with lots of former internationalists, and much of the talk was of rugby. More specifically the talk was that Scotland really could provide us all with a few surprises in Suva. Let's hope so.
As rugby spreads in the world one thing is for sure, and that is that countries like Fiji will become better, even though they concentrate on sevens more than we do.
It is astonishing that New Zealand, for instance, have a whole sevens squad signed up on a professional basis to do nothing but sevens. They still have the numbers for the fifteen man game though and it looks as though Fiji are in the same boat. Er, are we?
qIf you are going past Ibrox this evening then you will notice a very strange thing.
A whole lot of rugby people will be in the building. Yes, it is the Hawks end of season soiree tonight, and the gathered throng will be entertained by George McNeil and Robbie Glen. George is the former world professional sprint champion, and Robbie the former governor of Barlinnie prison.
Don't be surprised, though, if you see two or three folk standing outside having been barred from entering. Tom Lucas, the Hawks fitness guru, is a well kent face at Celtic park, otherwise known as Paradise, and through Tom, both Glenn Metcalfe and Andy Ness were guests at a recent Celtic match. Most Hawks folk, I would guess though, still wear the same old track suits they were given years ago. Well, they are old, but they are beautiful after all.
qA wee letter came my way from a Doctor Andrew Graham, who claim's to be no relation of Jimmy's.
He enclosed a cutting from the British Medical Journal of May 16 1998.
''Between 1984 and 1996 the two spinal units in New South Wales admitted 115 rugby players because of injuries to their cervical spinal cords.
''Two died, and 49 were left with permanent neurological deficits.'' (Medical Journal of Australia 1998).
''Over this period a small decline was evident in the incidence of these injuries in rugby players, but, nevertheless, it is a grim statistic and one that should be causing concern.'' That's what the article said.
Over to Doctor Andrew Graham: ''Do we Scots really want need or wish to be as 'tough' as the Aussies if this is the price?'' he asks. And this was only New South Wales?
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