what have you done to help out today?

This Sunday I went on a long motorcycle ride with my father. We were having such a wonderful time riding around lakes and canyons and nature and the like when, as we were nearing the end of our adventure, another motorcyclist pulled up next to us wearing a t-shirt that read, “Ride for the Cause."

Here we’d ridden for hours, nearly 200 miles, and for what?! Because we enjoyed riding? Because we enjoyed spending time together as father and son? I couldn't believe how selfish we’d been.

For years I've ridden my motorcycle nearly every day without thought but now, thanks entirely to this selfless motorcyclist’s selfless shirt-message, I ride for causes. Everyday a different cause. Everyday making a difference. Every day the world a little better place because I’m in it…riding.

So I think you should ride for a cause too. And maybe we’ll see each other out there, out riding to and from work but also out riding for causes, and who knows, maybe one day we’ll be riding for the same cause and I can’t imagine how that couldn't mean something important somehow.

This morning on my way to work I rode for ‘Save the Donkeys in the Holy Land,’ and let me tell you, it feels good to do good.



I haven’t decided yet what worthy cause I’ll be riding for on my way home. Not sick kids, or hungry people, or disaster relief of any kind though. You can take that to the bank. No, I’m here to bring attention to lesser known yet equally important causes that get overlooked by the sick and hungry as well as the healthy and well fed. Right now I’m considering a charity in Georgia that selflessly (and thanklessly) replaces people’s lost retainers. Because losing your retainer probably sucks but most of you are too busy ignoring the massacres in Darfur or Global Warming to even be bothered to think about things like that.