Slow & Steady

An average of 3%.  Doesn’t seem like much.  Especially if you’re talking chances of rain.

When it’s describing the grade of a road, that’s another matter.

Today’s effort was a 71 mile stretch from Ennis, MT to West Yellowstone, MT.  Our challenge came in the form of a consistent 3% grade pushing into a head wind over the first 42 miles of the trip.  A steady uphill climb…into wind which culminated into an 8% climb over Reynolds Pass on our way to lunch at Earthquake Lake made for some tired and hungry riders.

As we made that last ascent into our break, KTVM news out of Bozeman was capturing footage of the riders on the climb. Leading the pack and with the camera pointed on me I kept telling myself, “Don’t look tired….Can’t let ‘em see you struggle!”

But isn’t that one of our problems in our present-day culture?  Sometimes we’re just too proud to let others see or know that we are facing difficulties.

In our hyper-competitive, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses society even middle-class families are finding themselves on the brink.  Poverty isn’t just for low-income people.  Loss of job, catastrophic health issues, burdensome debt can all lead to a quick fall into poverty.   And if not physical/economic poverty, it can certainly lead to — or be a result of — spiritual poverty.

During my interview with the television reporter I was asked what we had hoped to accomplish with this ride.  Of course we want to create public awareness about poverty and to assist local Catholic Charities’ programs in raising monies for their operations.  But we also want to change hearts and minds when it comes to understanding and acting on poverty.  That includes dealing with our pride and open ourselves up to asking for help.  It also means being open to reaching out and helping those in need.

At the end of the day, we are all interdependent.  As much as we promote “independence” and “rugged individualism” as an American ideal, we really need each other.

If we’re to tackle poverty in America, we’ve got to be willing to help our brother and our sister.  We’ve got to take the shame out of poverty and the shame in asking for help.

Whether we struggle or look tired doesn’t matter.  It’s all about making it up the hill.