T-1

I've been here in Minneapolis a few days now. I flew out of Portland and into Denver on the morning of Thursday, the 1st. My connecting flight was canceled, as was the previous one to Minneapolis, because of the weather. Two planefuls of standby folk wound up meaning that I spent the night at Denver International. If nothing else, I learned that the chapel is about the only place safe from the blaring speakers telling me about threat level orange and liquids, gels, and aerosols in 3 oz (or smaller) containers. The elevation wore me out, especially since I had to carry around some extra stuff as a result of my suitcase being 13 lbs. overweight.

Everybody else had trouble as well. The final rider got here Saturday night.

I can't believe it's nearly time to get on the road officially. We have a press conference tomorrow morning, then on to our first stop, Notre Dame. We'll be on campus, or in the vicinity, on Thursday.

The support I've gotten for the ride has been overwhelming. I might very well cry. I'm just amazed and grateful that folks think so much of the work to give me more contacts than I know what to do with, ideas/resources to pursue, and even their hard-earned money. It's a different manifestation of "Do what you love and the money will come."

My favorite phrase lately is "busier than a one-armed paperhanger". I'm trying to become a biblical scholar, fundraising superstar, and networker extraordinaire in the course of about 3 months, from the time I applied for the ride to when we enter our final phase of training and actually hit the road. It's thrilling and exhausting and I couldn't see myself doing anything else right now.

I'm so awed and inspired at the bigness of all of this, as well as excited about getting to know my fellow riders better on those very long drives.

So much to talk about.

It's so great to see how the Equality Ride is already affecting people. I think it's most of what I talk about these days, and I'm sure my SO and friends are sick of hearing about it, but there are so many folks I talk to who are suprised about the schools' policies and want more information, offer a suggestion/contact, or just encourage/thank me.

It wakes me up at daybreak, literally. I'm nearly bursting with energy and an overwhelming feeling of being where I'm supposed to be and going where I'm supposed to go.

I went to see Rabbi Steve Greenberg, who is THE openly gay Orthodox rabbi, on Tuesday night in Portland. I wasn't sure what to expect, but he was so witty and engaging and warm. He talked about his book Wrestling With God and Men and about homosexuality and the Torah and the clobber passages. I went up to thank him afterward, and that if I could speak to people about this issue even a quarter as well as he had, I'd be in business. I brought up the Equality Ride, and we chatted about that for a bit. It was great.

Well, I'm off to send a few more emails and run a few errands.