July 22 - Day 100 - All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days. JF Kennedy
By the end of today, I will have cycled 3000 miles and completed two thirds of the challenge. Phew.. (but not too much - as I still have 1500 miles and 50 days left.) Before you ask, given the Kennedy quotation - NO! - I am not developing it in to a thousand days challenge. Kennedy said this during his inaugural speech, making reference to the first hundred days measure that had become an important benchmark in the assessment of the presidency. But - more of that later…
As I set off a bit earlier this morning, I was able to stop for a while to take some pictures and couldn’t resist giving you another picture of the highland cattle that happened to be close to the road - this time featuring a much younger one. There is something about the eye lashes and the tongue sticking a little bit out that can’t help but make you smile - especially when described by their Scottish name - Hairy Coos.
Day 22 or March 26th (when I first photographed the hairy coos) seems a long way away - and not just the extra 2340 miles or the different weather conditions. In just four months there seems to have been so many changes to the way we live and plans for the Centre have also had to adapt with each new announcement.
In his inaugural speech, Kennedy also said, ‘The world is very different now.’ For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.’ 60 years on and we still seem at times to have prioritised the latter. Scientists and healthcare staff have used the amazing power in their hands over the past year for good and yet, looking around at the increase in domestic violence, homelessness, debt and mental health issues, we don’t seem to have learnt the lessons that perhaps the global society should have learnt during this time. Further in his speech, Kennedy said, ‘Now the trumpet summons us again-not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are--but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself. Perhaps the time has come when we have to learn from the past and use the power of humanity and community to not just struggle against but overcome the enemies described. It’s certainly a good way of thinking about why I want to raise as much as possible, while also highlighting an increasing need, during my challenge over the next 1500 miles.
