AIDS/LifeCycle 5 – A Familiar and Foreign Journey.

This June, I will be participating in my first fundraising since Africa. I am AIDS/LifeCycle’s first ever dual city fundraiser, raising money for the HIV & AIDS services of the LA Gay & Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. I am alive because of these two outstanding organizations. Without them you would probably have stopped receiving my incessant emails about nine years ago. Imagine that. Now imagine a world without AIDS.

You can create what you dream.

Not to worry, I will NOT be badgering you to donate, boring you with saddle sores, making you woozy with New Age claptrap. I know we all have different areas where we donate, where we volunteer, where our passions lie. Well done. Follow your passions. That said, I invite you to join me on my journey.

Now if you want those anecdotal musings, hey, just sign on to my blogs. Very 2006, huh? Perfect for the cyber-chatterbox.

Why the ride, again? Because, 25 years later and AIDS is still here. Because I want to do what I can to make the world safer for my niece and nephew. Because I just crossed over the 10 years/healthy with HIV milestone.

I am also riding for my good friend Alex, whom I ran with in the AIDS Marathon in 2002. She crewed two years ago, rode last year. She loved the alchemical experience she had on the event. Three weeks ago she sent me a care package of a Cliff bar and photos of her riding last year. Her joy was tangible. Alex passed away two weeks ago at the age of 29.

So, I ride for Alex, for Carol Ann & Christopher, for your kids, nieces, nephews, grandkids, neighbors. For friends, family and strangers. We are all connected. We Are One.

I guess I ride for me, too. Grateful for the highs, the lows, the illness, the health, the amazing whirlwind journey-through-the-looking-glass that my life has been.

Thanks for being a big part of it!

To support the SF AIDS Foundation, click www.aidslifecycle.org/2274

To support the LA Center click www.aidslifecycle.org/6684

And if you are in LA, the East Bay or SF, check out the cool promotion that Amoeba Music www.amoebamusic.com is running. A cool company with tons of heart, indeed. That is my ugly mug you see on their webpage...

My promise to you: I will email a real email to you within the next two weeks. I’m taking time (courtesy of Amoeba, thankyouverymuch!!) to train and visit CT family.

Please consider joining me in this so vital fight.

Hey, why not cut and paste the AIDS/LifeCycle appeal and forward it on to any friends or family who might want to join our efforts! Power in the Wella-Balsam world of “I tell two friends, and they tell two friends and so on, and so on…” metrics.

Be well, my friends.
Namaste.

I honor the God in You.

Love,

Craig

"do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson