Ride for the Feast

Howdy, friends and fans!

I have been lax in my posting because, well, I have little to report. Adventures have been more of the boring domestic variety (I did some laundry), and news is the same old, same old. Ian is still solving world health issues, and I am still looking for a job.

So, instead of boring you with my non-news, I am going to excite you with somebody else's worthwhile project.

Here's the deal - my dear buddy from college, Mike Yengling, is riding in the Ride for the Feast. Movable Feast is an amazing organization that feeds folks in poverty who are living with HIV/AIDS or Breast Cancer. Their organization runs with very little overhead, and does a whole lot with very little. Mike does the ride every year with his team, Team Atomic, and I like to sponsor him.

My little day-dream is that YOU, yes YOU, would like to cough up a few bucks to sponsor Mike in his ride and donate to Movable Feast, too.

Yes, the economy sucks. Yes, there is uncertainty. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHY WE SHOULD HELP OUT! Somebody has it worse than you, and sponsoring Mike on this bike ride is a way to make a real change for somebody.

SPONSOR MIKE YENGLING IN RIDE FOR THE FEAST, PLEASE.

http://rideforthefeast.kintera.org/faf/search/searchParticipants.asp?ievent=291786&lis=1&kntae291786=BF0CDD148232415F9BA33808FE360D13

The organizers of the ride ask that folks who want to send words of encouragement to the riders on day 2 of the ride send an email to RFTFsupport@gmail.com. Go ahead and send an email if you like. Mike is a friendly and hilarious guy. He would love to hear from you.

This is a copy of my email to Mike (fyi - "pump it big in front and small in back" is bike jargon for "go really fast". It refers to using the biggest chainring in the front, and the smallest in back.)



Boneshaker Mikey Y in da house!!

watcha gonna do? FEED SOME PEOPLE, that's what.

WORD.

Tired? Good! That's what we paid you do. I didn't sponsor you so you could feel like you spent a day at the spa, dude. I paid you to get on your velocipede and create social change.

Your ride today may have been grueling and soul crushing, you may have been gnawing on your handlebars climbing the hills, and you might smell like a goat, but today's ride fed somebody. And, truth be known, you always kinda smell like a goat.

Armpits and donkey butt aside, an inspiring alchemy is happening. You and your bicycling posse, through burning a gajillion calories, are providing a million gajillion calories for somebody. Those calories are fueling the bodies of the folks who will now get a good nutritious meal, but the really amazing alchemy is that those calories end up feeding all of our souls, too. The process of caring, and of helping, and of inspiring, and of connecting, ends up giving all of us something we need. All this is to say good job, and thank you. Thank you for feeding my soul.

Now, little buddy, hop on that saddle tomorrow with the blessings and the energy of the well fed pushing you along for the entire rest of the ride. Pump it big in front, small in back, and kick it on in. Ride like a banshee at midnight on the full moon, a retired greyhound after the squirrel, a two-year-old liberated from diapers. Ride like all things inspired and driven forward in the sheer joy of willing, motivated, brilliant and exuberant motion.

Rock on, Brother Mike. Don't crash.

Love,

J Monkeypants A Go Go
(now of the wierd SoCal locale)