Heinz One-Fifty-Seven

I'm a math guy. Seriously. Math & science were always my thing. I mean, I studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston. If that's not math & science, then what is?

I barely remember my courses in Calculus or Differential Equations (oh yeah, we got any Diff EQ fans in the house? Hollah!!!). But I do remember how to count. Can't balance my checkbook but today I proved to myself that I can still count.

1...2...3...4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Whew...

101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156....

...157

One hundred fifty seven? Does that number have any significance to you?

No? I didn't think it meant anything to me either. Until I counted today. Counted my friends on Facebook. Well, not all of them - Facebook does that for me (Thank goodness for gay men like Alan Turing for helping to invent the computer! Did you know he was my age when he died? Yeah, just think of what could've been if he'd lived to 90).

Today I counted the number of my Facebook friends who have HIV. And that number came to one-five-seven. Well, at least those are the ones I know that have it. There may be some I've never discussed it with 'cuz, y'know, it is kind of a personal matter. No need to go posting it all over the internet or anything.

Oh. Wait.

Ugh. Did I do that? Again?

Never was good with rules.

Anyway, more than 150 of my friends on Facebook are living with the virus. Of course, there are quite a few who aren't on FB. I mean, not everyone uses that site. But you do, don't you? Yeah, me too.

Of that number, there's a solid 20% who are retired or on disability and benefit from services like the ones at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the LA Gay & Lesbian Center. Many others have, at some point in their lives, received some kind of assistance to get through a layoff, a recession, or an illness.

What's been most surprising to me are the ones who are clients of these services... who can no longer work... who believe so much in this cause... that they set aside a little bit of their money to donate to AIDS/LifeCycle. In my head, it's kind of like taking from Peter to give to.... Peter.

Then I realize the real reason they do this. They do it to inspire me. To motivate me. To give back a little of what they've received. And, I've said this before, that's part of my goal too since I've received assistance a couple times in my life from agencies like these.

So yeah... I'm keeping it simple today. I ride for those 157 friends who I'm so fortunate to have in my life today. And those others I was so fortunate to have for however long I had them.

Each and every one gives me strength.

Fills my heart.

Powers me to reach higher.

Go farther.

Be. All. That. I. Am.

J-