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Yesterday I used this space to mark the passing of Christopher Reeve. I have a lot of respect for the work he did raising funds and awareness to help vicitims of spinal cord injuries. Last week I got a letter from a friend from college, Ken Weidinger. He and his sister Bonnie are also heroes of mine so I want to share part of that letter:

Dear Friends,

Recently my brother David and I completed the MS 150 bike ride in Atlanta, Georgia. We have ridden this ride together for the past 11 years in honor of our sister Bonnie who has bravely fought Multiple Sclerosis for over 20 years. We ride because others can’t. We ride because this is an awful disease that often robs friends and loved ones of their own mobility. We ride to raise awareness. We ride to raise money that supports patients, their families, and the ongoing research to fight Multiple Sclerosis.

Bonnie continues to live each day with courage, strength, and grace. She is a source of constant inspiration and support to her family, active in many church activities, and reads more than anyone that I know. If you were to talk with Bonnie on the phone, it is her positive nature and enthusiasm for life that would come through loud and clear. Never is there a hint of the daily challenges and struggles that she faces as her body continues to be affected by this disease.

The ride goes on. Six years ago David formed Team Bonnie to inspire the riders who ride in her honor. This year over 75 riders donned the purple and black Team Bonnie uniforms (for the full impact of that visual gem I suggest you check out the photos at [dead link]) and cycled for two days over the back roads of rural Georgia. We were proud, purple, and passionate about the cause. Our goal is simple… raise as much money as we can to fight Multiple Sclerosis.

I think I met Bonnie only once and that was many years ago. I remember when Ken told me she had been diagnosed with MS. He had an incredibly positive attitude because they finally knew what they were fighting. As bad as MS is, knowing was better than the doubt and uncertainty that had preceded the diagnosis. And now they ride. One hundred and fifty miles in two days. I get saddle sore thinking about that. And they get over 75 people to join in. Don’t underestimate the power of proud, purple, and passionate.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society accepts donations through their web site at www.nmss.org or at:

Christopher Reeve Died yesterday. I have to admit that I was never a great fan of his acting career. (I thought he made a pretty good Clark Kent….) But I was very impressed with him as a person after I read his autobiography, Still Me. It was written after his accident that confined him to a wheelchair.

In it he writes,

“If someone were to ask me what is the most difficult lesson I’ve learned from all this, I’m very clear about it: I know I have to give when sometimes I really want to take. I’ve realized instinctively that it’s part of my job as a father now not to cause Will [his youngest son] to worry about me. If I were to give in to self-pity or express my anger in front of him, it would place an unfair burden on this carefree five-year-old. If I were to turn inward and spend my time mourning the past, I couldn’t be as close to Matthew and Alexandra[his older children], two teenagers who naturally need to turn to me for advice. And what kind of life would it be for Dana [his wife] if I let myself go and became just a depressed hulk in a wheelchair? All of this takes effort on my part, because it’s still very difficult to accept the turn my life has taken, simply because of one unlucky moment.”

Reeve started a foundation to raise funds for medical research and was hopeful that injuries like his can be cured. The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (http://www.crpf.org/) continues to work to that end and accepts donations on line or at:

Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation
500 Morris Avenue
Springfield, NJ 07081
800/225-0292

It has certainly been a good news/bad news couple of days.

Bad news: NASA announced that because of damage from the recent hurricanes, the return to flight of any space shuttles will be delayed. They had hoped to launch in March 2005 and now expect it will be somewhere in May to July. And former Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper died yesterday.

Good news: SpaceShipOne has won the $10 million Ansari X Prize. (See image below.) The prize spurred competition over the last few years to develop spacecraft that could be used for commercial space flights. Learn more at http://www.xprize.org/ and at http://www.scaled.com/. And entrepreneur Richard Branson has licensed the technology announcing plans to begin offering flights into space within three years. (The initial cost is expected to be nearly $200,000 per person for maybe seven minutes outside the earth’s atmosphere. And you thought seven minutes in heaven was thrill when you were in junior high….)

I got this in my email at home today:

I got this in my email at work today: