I was driving home after work and saw a guy riding a bike. Now, normally I wouldn’t have really noticed the guy riding the bike that much, but this incident really caught my eye. He was wearing light purple scrubs with a light purple printed smock. As I passed, I saw that it was Dr. Wendel T. Nilson, the awesome and caring pediatrician, who works here in St. George at Canyon Land Pediatrics. And, I found out that the print on the smock could have been Spongebob Squarepants. That is sure to be a winner with all the children who are are his well-cared-for patients.

Anyway, I saw him again volunteering at the temple cafeteria, in white scrubs this time. I told him I’d seen him riding a bike and asked if he was riding to work to be healthy. I thought it was fabulous that even the doctor rides a bike. We had a great conversation, and I found out that he has some valuable viewpoints on exercise. He and I agree that exercise should have a purpose. Here are his beliefs that I think we should all seriously consider.

• If you are going to take the time and money to go to a gym to exercise, why not consider saving some money and exercising with a more altruistic purpose. You could use the same time and go pull weeds for a neighborhood widow. Maybe you could offer some other valuable service like building her a shed. Then, instead of spending money at the gym and being self-oriented, you could be service-oriented while you exercise.
• If your spouse or sweetheart wants you to look muscular, then you would have a perfect excuse to try to look strong for her by going to the gym and using the weights.
• Preventive maintenance is accomplished by riding a bike, it can get your circulation going and help you to have a healthier heart.
• How about gardening? You can exercise by getting your fingers into the dirt as you are weeding or planting vegetables. The valuable enzymes and minerals of the soil such as manganese, copper, and zinc will absorb under your fingernails and benefit your liver health. Spend your money and time building an orchard of fruit to feed many people.
• Riding a bike saves gas and is great for the environment. Go green!

He had an interesting story about how he used to ride an electric scooter to work as a way to go green. Things were going great until one night around 1:00 a.m., a police officer pulled him over at the side of the road because his left blinker wasn’t working. This was frustrating, because he needed to be at the hospital saving a life. It was annoying that he had to take the time to get a ticket when there was no traffic and a little girl needing urgent care. 

He has some hopes that St. George will become a city full of bike-riding paths so that everyone can use their bikes to safely navigate through the whole city.  There are only a few cities in America that are set up for accommodating bikers. Not only would you have a healthier population, but there would be less air pollution too. Dr. Nilson has an important dream that we all should adopt and do what we can to bring positive changes to whatever city we live in.

The next time you are driving through St. George over by River Road and 700 South and you see a good-natured man riding a bike with a purple Spongebob Sqaurepants smock top and purple scrub pants, you could probably guess that it’s a caring doctor, who not only cares for his young patients, but also the environment, all the people around him, and  the widows needing service.