Guilty, guilty, guilty, I am an idealist. I, myself, would find it hard to get out of bed in the morning, let alone hop on a bicycle and head into the unknown, if I did not believe deeply that people can be nurtured to a more respectful and caring coexistence.
I could Google quotes from the Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa for back up of my beliefs, but I have to go no further than this website.
Willie Weir describing travel to a black township in South Africa:
Ive learned if enough people tell you to be afraid, fear begins to creep into your very soul. I went from being excited, to being nervous, to not being able to sleep at night . . . All of these kids came pouring out of a tiny school. They jumped up and down and cheered for the traveling cyclist. My fears melted away in their smiles.
And Rob Cassibo, as he appears on the ACA home page this month:
Describing how a Pakistani father and son near Kashmir [a war zone] helped him fix one of his rims, he says, [the father] spent two hours carefully tapping away at my rim until he got it round. I thought he was a miracle worker. When I asked what I owed him, his response was, 'It is human duty to help a stranger.'"
I and everyone I know have fears and trepidations of the other, the unknown. We build up walls both real and imaginary, and both can be very hard to breach. What can we do but try, both as individuals and organizations?
Western Flyer
When the creatures went,
the wheels went;
when the creatures stopped,
the wheels stopped;
when the creatures lifted off,
the wheels lifted off,
because the spirit
of the living creatures
was in the wheels.
Ezekiel 1: 20,
