A bicycle without a rider

It’s almost 6:30am and I just dropped off my friends Ryan and Johann at the Cow Palace.  In a few minutes, they will be astride their bikes and riding 600 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles… all in the name of charity.  It’s that time of the year folks, AIDS/Lifecycle time.  Time to dust off our perfectly able bodies and our latent willpower and DO SOMETHING.

I didn’t stay for the opening ceremony.  You see, I did the AIDS Ride in 2001.  The person I rode for in 2001 was already dead… from AIDS; and his son was now a huge 22 year old who went thru an angry phase after his father’s death.  And there was this ‘thing’ they did at the opening ceremony in 2001.  Before we -700 people with fine-assed calves, I must say- all rode out en masse atop our various bikes, the presenters brought out a single bike and wheeled it onto the stage.  They then said, “This is the bike for the person… who couldn’t be here today to ride it.”  I couldn’t go through that again.  I didn’t want to know if they did that ‘thing’ again, I couldn’t handle it.  I rode 9 years ago, and although the situation’s getting better, I didn’t want to think of the people who’ve died since.

I was proud of my friend Johann and Bryan, who each raised $3000 towards helping out the LA Gay and Lesbian Center (one of the best places for theatre in LA, btw) and the SF AIDS Foundation.  It’s a pain becoming a pain to your friends (“Hey, um, I was wondering if you could donate to my fundraising…”) but they ARE out there trying to make a difference… and isn’t making a difference make life worth living?