Right after September 11, 2001 I went to a lecture in Minnesota given by Maya Angelou, famous author, poet and social commentator.
Maya is known for her wisdom and wit, and so it was very fitting that she packed a lecture hall at a local university, full of people desperate for answers and understanding after that terrible morning 9 years ago...
Maya implored the crowd to find what she called our own personal "balm." Think about it. We all have those things in our lives that find comfort in...some healthy, others not so much. As the level of stress increases for each one of us...bigger, better job, bills, kids, etc., we need to find those things that will bring us peace and security.
For Eric Begin and I, Team Switchback, we have found that our passion for endurance cycling can bring a measure of balm to the citizens of Juarez, Mexico. In a sense, we are using our balm to bring others into a more certain world, if only for the moment.
Cycling has changed our lives for the better and so we seek ways to pay that forward to another people and another place. We are hoping that you will find balm and peace in your life and help us bring that comfort to the impoverished world of Juarez, Mexico.
Next June, Eric and I will be racing our bicycles across the American West with the basic premise that individual people with a passion for humanitarian causes, such as ours, can effect positive, secure change as the world seems to be spinning out of control.
Maya Angelou spoke for a bit over an hour to a mass of people looking for something to grip onto, days after planes crashed, people jumped, rescuers ran in and our world was turned upside down and as she begged us to find our center, she sang out, "There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole..."
Help Team Switchback carry this message to the residents of Juarez...
Team Switchback c/o Tim Case
PO Box 270671
Louisville, CO 80027
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