"And how did little Tim behave?" Mrs. Cratchit asks her husband Bob when he and Tiny Tim enter the house after attending church Christmas morning.

"As gold as gold," Bob says, "and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you've ever heard. [Such as] ... he hoped the people saw him in church because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember, upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men see."Without a doubt, reading and then watching Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" ranks No. 1 on my list of pre-Christmas school activities. Professionally, it's quite satisfying to expose my students to what might be the greatest story ever told of redemption.And personally, it's quite affecting. I've seen the George C. Scott movie version more than 50 times, yet I still feel a creeping tingle up my spine and a fluid discharge in my eyes when Scrooge asks his nephew for forgiveness for all the times he's criticized Christmas and demeaned Fred and his annual Christmas dinner invitation.Despite my fondness for that scene, I start today's column with another one.One that intimates that Tiny Tim possesses a tremendous appreciation for life, despite his less-than-optimal health. One that hopes for a positive outcome when the healthy lay eyes upon a cripple. One that exhibits the sort of attitude we should all have whether or not it's Christmas.I am thinking about all of this because six weeks and six days ago I couldn't help crashing into a downed rider on the fast part of a training ride. And since that time, I've been thinking a lot about another cyclist who had a bicycle accident: Jared Fenstermacher.But Jared's bicycle "accident" really wasn't. In August, a 29-year-old driver of a pick-up truck, who claimed to have turned his head just for an instant to check on his son, hit him from behind.The impact broke both of Jared's arms and left him paralyzed from the waist down.To add insult to the injury, the driver was uninsured, and the maximum penalty under Iowa law is a $750 fine.I've done group rides with Jared, who's now 32 and a Berks County native, and have spoken to him on a number of occasions. He strikes me as an exemplary guy. Just before he was hit, in fact, the local newspaper reported that he had left a thank-you note for a family who had done nothing more than allow him to wait out a storm in their barn.Jared took shelter in that barn near Sioux City, Iowa during a 3,200-mile cross-country trek to raise $11,000 for the nonprofit For Pete's Sake Cancer Respite Foundation, which provides one-week vacations to cancer patients and their caregivers. Jared was doing so in part because his grandfather, who had introduced him to cycling, died from cancer in 2005.So when a group of his Berks County buddies did a ride on Black Friday to raise money for Jared's rehab, I participated. Before we began, I heard good news: that Jared had been experiencing "twitches" in his legs and that there was still a chance that the paralysis would not be permanent.Which brings me back to my crash that caused me to cartwheel in midair and land heavily enough on the lower part of my spine to destroy a cell phone. I felt discomfort in my back and hips for more than a month, and I won't lie to you: there were times when it hurt to do the simplest stretch or dismount the bike and I cursed my fate.But then I'd think about Jared and get that same tingle up my spine that watching Scrooge apologize to Fred gives me. And a little fluid might discharge from my eyes, too.I rode away from my crash that day after hitting macadam at probably 25 miles an hour. The next day, I lifted weights lightly. Two days later, I rode easily outdoors on a bicycle.I was blessed.I did not miss a day of doing what I loved.And how about you? Are you really doing what you love? Are you really using your body for what it was meant to do?If you're not, I want you to think long and hard about Jared.P.S.: In the 27 years that I have written this column, I have never I asked readers to support a cause. Today, I'll do so.Jared's medical bills are staggering, and since he was between jobs when he rode across the country, he has no medical insurance. Donations can be made through gofundme.com.