Hope And Courage Across America Journal

This was written the night before we left and read at our send-off party on the 17th. My intent was to post it on the day we left, but lack of computer access prevented me from posting it until now. I apologize for the delay and hope my message and heart comes across regardless. Thank you for reading…

The route is mapped, the bikes are tuned, the fifth wheel is loaded, and our send-off party is well underway. Everything is set in motion. Except for us. But we will be. Soon.  Years of planning and preparations are about to become a reality: Hope and Courage launches today. And so to set the mood I would like to float a few quotes from some of our fellow knowledgeable Americans:

• “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
• “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.” – Maya Angelou
• “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” – Christopher Reeve     
• “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

These concepts – hope and courage - are not new to the 20th and 21st centuries, though. Evidence of their importance dates back to Biblical times. In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah alludes to the impact of hope when he writes: “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” The apostle Paul speaks of the impact of courage as he writes to the Philippians that “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”

The final quote I would like to use was one I had the pleasure of hearing firsthand while completing my mental health hospital rotation at school this year. Its speaker was a young boy who believed the Holy Trinity was speaking through him. Yet even in his mentally unstable state, I found his words to often speak hilarity and startling truth. When asked in front of a group of patients what his favorite animal was, he smilingly replied, “My favorite animal is the grasshopper because it soars and hops. And hop is close to the word hope. And hope is something we could all use a little more of and something we can only receive from the Holy Trinity.” 

One thing that stands out to me about the authors of these quotes and I am hoping did to you, too, is their diversity. We hear thoughts expressed by a politician’s wife, a poet, superman, a social activist, a prophet, an apostle, and a psychotic teenager. And yet they all speak in relation to two concepts: hope and courage. Why? Because those elements make for more than just a catchy title of a bike ride. They are not unique to my family in the same way that this ride itself is not just about the Mortimers heading off on the ultimate summer vacation. Hope and courage is about all of us. Hope and courage is in all of us. And that is why our ride is geared towards accomplishing two things: Inspiring others to tap into their hope in God and the courage within themselves to achieve their best self possible and allowing others to inspire, uplift, and teach us by exemplifying the hope and courage already within our country. That being said, I fully anticipate receiving more from people I encounter along the ride than I could ever imagine giving. Though our nation and all of its citizens have been faced with numerous trials in the past few years, hope and courage remain. And even as tribulations will continue to attack, hope and courage will prevail. And so it is my goal this summer to find it, give it a face, look it dead in the eye, learn from it, and then report back to all of you of my findings. I will find it in the evergreen forests of Washington, the mountains of Colorado, the  Minnesota flat lands, in the cities, in the heartland, and at the Statue of Liberty. I will see it in my fellow riders, in you our appreciated supporters, and in our neighbors scattered all throughout this beautiful country. The flame of hope and courage has been lit in this country since its existence, but this summer it is our prayer to fan the fire and take it to soaring heights. Thank you for helping us achieve that.

Cheers,

Nicole