I Will Not Die

To the Facebook community:

I am asking for your help.

You have the power to help me achieve a dream.

In June of this year I embarked on a personal crusade. My aim was to abandon the confines of my cubicle and set off across the United States on a bike.

I wanted to do something remarkable. In all honesty, it might be the only truly remarkable thing I’ve ever done in my life.

I gave myself just sixty days in which I could find a sponsor to help with the cost of the trip.

The sixty days came and went and I was still here. That was August. To read more details about the failure, read this.

Soon afterwards, I decided to persist. I am holding a fundraiser online in an effort to raise the money.

What’s up with this guy?

It’s not about some joy ride. My motivation has much greater depth.

I want to do something beautiful.

That’s it.

How can you help?

Publicity isn’t cheap, friends. And it isn’t easy. Promoting this event has been both a blessing and a struggle.

It’s been a blessing because of all the help I’ve received, but it’s also been a struggle because finding a large enough audience to make this a win is tough.

When I started this fundraiser, I thought I would need a few dollars from a few thousand people. But so far it’s been much better than that. Even without including the largest donations I’ve received, the average has been over ten dollars. Why is that significant?

It means I was wrong about needing help from thousands of people.

I just need help from just 700 698 more.

That’s right. Help from 700 698 people.

The goal

My goal is to try to leave before winter gets here. It’s coming fast. I only have about a month.

700 698 people.

Not everyone has enough money to contribute charitably.

I respect that, very much.

But you are Facebook.

You number in the millions.

The millions.

You can make this happen. You can help me win this.

Will you share this with your friends and ask them to do the same?

My dream will become your dream.

What’s in it for you?

For starters, I will be writing about the event live through this website.

I promise you a great show.

I will write for you the contents of my soul.

If you can spare a few dollars, click here.

If you can, you will be one of the 700 698, but even if you cannot:

All you have to do is click this button to use the Facebook sharer to share this with your friends. That is all I ask.

Help me win this dream…

Dereck :: Oct.11.2008 :: CUBE :: 4 Comments »

It’s a shame, in only a mildly strange way, that I do not really know you.

Could it ever be less of a shame?

Yes, but only in a mildly strange way.

How so?

Only if for some brief moment, I could look into your eyes, so I could thank you with my own.

You don’t even know me.

What you do know of me has arrived to you from some of things I have written here. But you’ve never seen my eyes. So instead, I will write for you what my eyes would say, were they looking into yours.

They would say thank you.

Can you fathom just how much they would say thank you?

We’ve never met, and still, you learned about "just some guy" who wants to leave the perpetual gray walls around him so he can embark on a new kind of life.

You imagined me at some point setting off with the great dawn on my back, and you said, "Go young lad! Go!"

"Go off into those hills!"

And you gave me a few dollars and sent me on my way.

And when I do go, on my way, I will turn and look over my shoulder and tell you that I am.

"I am going off into those hills!"

And I will say thank you.

And today you sent me a message.

And in it, you said that you loved me, and that you respected me.

And if only my eyes could tell you, even if just nothing else, it would be this:

I love you too.

Dereck :: Oct.07.2008 :: CUBE :: 10 Comments »

I’m writing some more fiction at the moment. It came into my head two evenings ago, the whole story from start to finish, in the span of about four minutes. Typing it out and adding the details that will make it digestible will take a bit more time. But I’m in my element here. I’m wading in the waters of deeper thinking.

I like it here.

And while I’m here, and while I haven’t the finished piece to share, I wanted to officially greet my unknown friends. By doing so, I in no way intend to diminish in any respect the value of my known friends.

As it turns out though, I have made some friends with whom I have never spoken. They number by my guess a few over a hundred or so. Some sites crudely call them lurkers, I prefer to call them simply friends.

So who are you?

That’s not important; I’m no more interested in hearing your voice as I might imagine it while reading what you might type into a comment box as you might be inclined to use a comment box and disclose something you might rather not. We’re both cool like that.

But I see you. Being a webmaster gives me that small privilege. And I wanted to offer you a one-sided hello.

You read something or another here that interested you and you come back regularly to check in on things.

I like that.

I spent years acting in similar ways, always as a reader and never as a speaker, and by saying that in the past tense I in no way intend to indicate that my present course is somehow a revived or more healthy mode, but rather, just the act of blogging in general is the event that demands the disposition I now presently adopt. Simple as that.

But in my heart, I am still much like you: A reader, from the sidelines, more interested in the act of learning that the act of opining.

But I see you. I recognize when you’re here. I accept your lack of discussion. Truly.

Just wanted to say hello.

Dereck :: Oct.02.2008 :: CUBE :: 11 Comments »