Preparing to leave

This break has flown by.  I have a few more days before I leave for Scotland, but they’re likely to be packed and chaotic.  I don’t have a whole lot of time or inspiration to write just now, so I’ll say what I have to say and make my peace.  I have finally begun fundraising for the AIDS/LifeCycle, and the prospect of how far I have left to go is daunting.  I’ll post a copy of my fundraising letter in here, maybe some random person will land on it and be inspired to donate.  But anyway, one of the things I’m doing to raise money is I bought a jersey to wear on the ride, and I wrote on the back "I’m Riding For…", and I charge people $5 to write their name or the name of a loved one on it.  Even people who don’t choose to write give me money, although $5 isn’t much.  It’s better than nothing.  But some people take donation forms and write down the name of my site (aidslifecycle.org/1622), and I have hope that some of them might actually donate properly.  So far, one family has.

At the New Year’s party at Elisabeth’s house, Kevin and his mother told me about his uncle, who had died of AIDS.  They wanted to write his name on my jersey but weren’t sure which to use — he was a career navy man, and so couldn’t be openly gay, so he used an alias with his partner.  They eventually elected to write his legal name and not his private name.  I was intensely moved by their story…it suddenly registered that, just because I don’t know anyone with AIDS, many of the people I talk to will not have been so lucky.

Yesterday, I logged into my account to see if I had received any new donations.  I had asked Kevin’s family for $5 to write a name on my shirt, and they had sent me $100.  They also left me a message:  "May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may G-d hold you in the hollow of his hand."  — A Gaelic blessing From Kevin, Scott, and Mary.  It almost made me cry.

–Stephanie