I read in a travel magazine about Rory Stewart, author of the book, The Places in Between. The book describes his 600-mile walk across Afghanistan in 2002, right after the fall of the Taliban. He’s told by an Afghan when entering the country, "You are the first tourist in Afghanistan. It is mid-winter. There are three meters of snow on the high passes, there are wolves, and this is a war. You will die, I can guarantee."

In the travel article, Stewart talks about grand gestures and heros–things that the human spirit knows about but our intellectual mind has trouble comprehending.

Closer to home, a friend of mine, Traci Maddox, is biking 3,400 miles across the U S, starting near Portland, Oregon, and ending in Portland, Maine. While not nearly as dangerous as walking through a war zone in the middle of winter, Traci has her own troubles to contend with (mosquitos, headwinds, hail storms, and lack of ATMs), which she has nicely documented in a blog.  By now, she’s someplace in North Dakota or maybe even Minnesota, having surpassed the 1500 mile mark and blogged about Day 30 on the road.

In both cases, the craziness of the adventure is offset by the will of human beings to experience their own and others’ humanity. Traci, who makes her living as a coach and organization development consultant, wrote this before she started her trip: 

"So I’m a nearly 45-year-old woman who is about 30 pounds overweight with a recently broken leg getting ready to ride 3,400 miles when my longest training ride has been 3 hours! Am I crazy or what?" 

In her postings, Traci describes the help she gets from people along the way. In Stanley, ND, a friendly city worker visits their campsite to warn them about a severe storm coming and a shopkeeper takes pity on them when they can’t find an ATM and credit cards aren’t accepted.

I’m looking forward to getting a copy of The Places in Between and reading Traci’s blog–great summer reading and some inspiration for a grand gesture of my own…..