A Good News Cycling Story

bikes

As more and more ‘leaks’ start to spill out in the lead up to Oprah’s interview with fallen hero Lance Armstrong, people are becoming increasingly cynical about cycling. And while I can’t see it happening, there’s even the suggestion that cycling could be removed from the Olympic Games for a while.

Thankfully, cycling as a sport, as a pass-time, mode of transport, recreation or whatever else it is to the millions worldwide who take part in two wheeled transportation in some way, does not revolve around Lance or the other professional cyclists who have doped.

Yes, they’ve cast a shadow over cycling but it’s bigger than that and there will always be good news stories about cycling.

From the feeling of freedom a child experiences on their first bike, through to the rush enjoyed by dedicated racing cyclists who build their performance on hard work and sweat, there’s a magical quality to the humble bicycle. Cycling is great for health and for our planet. It can be enjoyed alone or be incredibly social. Bicycles are also an essential tool in building income for many around the world.

I also wonder how many millions of dollars have been raised for great causes over the years by people who have pushed pedals.

Bikes are constantly being used as a means of highlighting a cause and raising sponsorship. I’ve used bikes to raise money for at least half a dozen causes, including riding many thousands of kilometres for literacy projects in developing countries through Bike for Bibles.

In less than a month I’m saddling up again for a good cause.

I’m hoping you’ll support me and help me save some lives through Compassion.

Having seen first hand, both in Haiti and Dominican Republic, how effective Compassion’s work is, I am determined to do what I can to help. That’s why from the 10th to the 12th of February I’ll once again be taking part in the 25000 Spins Great Ocean Road Challenge.

I’ll be riding 290 kilometres and battling some serious hills over three days and I need your support. By sponsoring my efforts on the challenge you’ll be releasing children from poverty. You’ll be giving children a real chance at life. Please visit my fundraising page and make a contribution. Maybe you can afford to sponsor me for a dollar a kilometre, maybe 50 cents a kilometre, or perhaps you’d just like to donate $10, $20, $50 or any other amount. My overall target is $2500 so I have a long way to go.

Please help me save some lives. Please make your donation, large or small, and then share this post in as many ways as you can so that more people will get on board and more lives will be saved.

No matter what Lance, or any other cyclist may or may not have done, cycling is still a good news story.



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Making the move with a Kindle

kindle.jpgI wonder how much easier moving house would be if we had a couple of Kindles instead of a few bookcases full of books.

Even though I don’t get to do nearly enough of it, I love reading. I enjoy grabbing a book and a coffee and sprawling out on a couch to disappear into another world as I leaf through the pages.

I’m not entirely convinced that the Kindle would give the same experience as a book but I know it’d be easier to move your library from one place to another.

If you haven’t heard of the kindle before, it’s Amazon’s wireless electronic book. It’s kind of like an iPod for books. It’ll hold a couple of hundred books, magazines and newspapers and is said to read just like a book. The big news for them at the moment is that Oprah has jumped on board and named it as her new favourite gadget. That should move sales along nicely.

Unfortunately they haven’t made them available in Australia yet so I guess we’ll just have to pack all our books into boxes and move them the old fashioned way.



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Oprah’s Sprirituality

tv.jpgI must admit that I haven’t seen a lot of Oprah over the years but what I have seen just serves to confirm that she’s the ultimate television professional.

Her programme, The Oprah Winfrey Show, has earned a number of Emmy Awards and is the highest rating talk show in the history of television.

According to Wikipedia, she has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time, and the world’s only black billionaire for three straight years. That’s an amazing achievement for someone who has battled the odds to be where she is today.

Born in rural Mississippi to a poor unwed teenaged mother, and later raised in an inner city Milwaukee neighbourhood, Winfrey was raped at the age of nine, and at fourteen, gave birth to a son who died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated. – Wikipedia

More and more these days Oprah’s programme has focused on spiritual themes that have found a very welcome audience amongst her millions of fans. Many say she is the most influential woman in the world, so when Oprah endorses something, millions around the world not only listen, they act on what they hear.

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

This week we looked at the kind of spirituality that Oprah endorses and the latest author to have received a massive career boost via Oprah’s television show, Eckhart Tolle. Tolle’s brand of new age spirituality has been embraced by millions since attaining Oprah’s endorsement.

Oprah rejects any idea of there being one pathway to God as being unthinkable. She seems to be on a spiritual search, earnestly seeking answers and taking her vast international audience on the journey with her.

If you’d like to hear what Ross had to say about Oprah and her thoughts on spirituality, just click play on the audio player at the bottom of this post.



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