What was I thinking?!!!

Today, 10/1/2104, I signed up for the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure 2015. I suppose I should come up with a more original title for this blog, but I must write.

On the beach of Lake Michigan in Lake Bluff, IL

The heading for this post is the question I asked myself innumerable times last summer as I rode six weeks from the beach of Lake Michigan in Illinois to the Pacific beach in Oregon. I swore this was my last time, that I was going to return to the relative ease of sailing- what I used to consider "the hardest way to go anywhere, slowly". So, for the record when I'm nursing a sore butt and everything else on my (future) 58 year old body I'll have this to remind me.

Giving thanks on the Pacific beach of Astoria, OR

First of all, I've always possessed a well-functioning "forgetter". Just as everyone else I forget the pain once it passes and only remember the joy. I guess that keeps mankind going, especially women having babies (talk about sore nether-regions!). Though nothing like giving birth, I have to remind myself of the sleep deprivation, physical pain, emotional exhaustion, the accompanying crankiness...but that all quickly evaporates in the weeks following the return home. Our hearts remain together, and today I got caught up in the enthusiasm of my fellow riders as they signed up for next year. I think I can speak for my other "second-halfers" (the term participants aged over 50 gained in Chicago) when I say the junior rider's youth is our elixir. Their wide eyed exuberance, blind to the reality that is exposed as the years erode life, is wind in this old frigate's sail. Riding, sleeping, eating, praying and then working aside them I feel like a sage the moment I show them the finer points of hammering a nail, but a fool with weeks to answer a young man's query "tell me everything you know about love". As a seniors on these rides the youngsters look to us for knowledge, guidance, and maybe even wisdom- but this ignorant, lost, and foolish old dog learns new tricks from these pups.

What I have found and wish to share with everyone is that America is a wonderful country full of amazing people. We riders have the privilege of being their guests, and congregations we encounter invariably find inspiration in the ideals we share through demonstration. These are trying times; the world is full of disease and unease that leave me feeling almost hopeless at times. I can't do anything about everything, but I can do a little about something. Central Florida is home to one of every hundred homeless children in the entire country. That is a disproportionate population that must be addressed, and the Fuller Center for Housing of Central Florida is a handful of dedicated individuals inspiring a small army of supporters, and every Saturday, somewhere in our community we do a little about this something. Much more must be done, and we need money to buy building supplies. In 2013 this all started out as a bike ride that required me to raise some money, but now I'm raising money, so am required to ride a bike. I don't have the resources to take enough time to participate in the entire 10 weeks, but I'll do what I can to raise as much as possible. Something must be done.