Reasons and Rationales

In an earlier post, I mentioned my 10-yer old son. I bring him up again because he is definately part of my motivation for continuing to do The Walk every year. A couple of years ago, the little sister of one of his friends was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer at the age of 5. I was speechless with disbelief when he came home from school and told me. I was still stammering and searching for words when he said, "Sure is a good thing you do that walk." I just looked at him as he continued, "You know, to raise all that money to cure cancer." I realized how linear and black and white it all is in my kids' minds. To them its inconceivable that this many people could work this hard to raise such a massive amount of money to fund such high quality research and not produce a cure. To them, there's a direct link between the number of miles I put on my sneakers every year and how long it will be before no one they care about has to face down an uncertain future because of cancer. There was no way to avoid signing up for another 3-Day after that. And last October, I had signed up for the 2010 Boston Walk before I left camp at the 2009 Atlanta event. I can't not do it now. When I signed up for my first 3-Day in 2007, my children had nothing to do with it - in fact, they would have made a handy excuse to get me out of it. But over the last four years, they have been the driving force behind my continuing commitment. They will be emboldened by what they see us trying to do and they will know that making the world a better place is a goal worth pursuing.