Breakfast: Nothing
Lunch: Frozen dinner, enchilada thing, 2 snack bags of cranberries
Dinner: Last of the roast beef, horseradish/mayonnaise mixture, green beans
Snack: Cheddar
Crackefuls, 2
In
the past 24 hours I have slept for more than 14. I woke early, was up
for a few minutes and went back to bed, sleeping until noon. I have
managed to stay up all day, and whilst I do not feel ill, I know that I
could have easily gone for a nap or two. I am headed off in a few
minutes, but I only got up at noon because the telephone rang. I always
answer the phone, you just never know when it will be important,
although it rarely is. This is going to be long and it is all the fault
of that telephone call. (Note: I just re-read this, sort of, and it
is long and boring and biased. Even so, I stand by it, typos, rotten
syntax, rambling, confusion, preachiness and all.)
I think that
the most important work that we do in our lives is to live the best life
that we can, take care of our families, even the members who drive us
insane. So, family first.
Next is our faith community, which
does not even have to be the church to which we belong, just a place
that does good works. Even if you are of a different spiritual path,
they will be happy to welcome you into their social service work. I
accept that many people will always put God first, but that is not my
way. Whether you believe anything about a higher power or not, the
first thing most of us experience is family, and to my mind, even with a
God, that God gave us family...and later friends...first, long before
we could even begin to come to faith, so that must mean something, yes?
The
next step outwards is our neighborhoods. Over the years I have lost
contact with the people who lived nearest to me, as they moved away and
other people moved in. We live in a sort of transitional area, with
people stopping here on their way to someplace better. We are here
because it was the only location we could afford and it has served us
well for nearly 36 years. I know and am conversant with only four other
families. That is kind of shameful, because I do not know if there is
anyone around here who does not have family or friends that check up on
them. I would just hate to find out that someone needed help and did
not know any of us well enough to reach out. It makes me think of that
woman in Australia that died and no one missed her for years. I mean,
how sad and unfortunate is that.
So, anyway, this is inspired
by a telephone call requesting a charitable donation. When I expressed
my inability to help them, the woman was nice enough, though clearly
disappointed that I did not hand over my inconsiderable wealth to her.
That, the last part, is not true, but when I asked to be put on their
no-call list, because receiving these calls is so distressing to me, she
got all snarky and called me selfish before she disconnected.
That
reminded me of a similar call, oh, about ten years ago, from our
state's public radio system. I had been a regular contributor for
decades, but that time was one of struggle for me and I just could not
make even a small donation. This was around the time of the annual fund
drive (they only had one each year then), and the station or a
volunteer, most likely, was making cold calls to former contributors,
and when I explained that I could not donate anything that year, her
response was something like, oh, surely you can't be so cheap that you
can't send five dollars or something, and, well, that stung a bit, too.
An earlier experience, around 35 years ago was a call-center call for the
Special Olympics.
The guy who called was really rude and pushy and when I kept trying to
explain that we figured out what we could afford to donate each year and
then chose a few organizations to whom we would make that donation, and
that I was happy to add them to the list for the following year because
we have donated to them in the past, he called me a couple of names,
ones I am unwilling to share here, mostly because I am trying so hard to
not curse any more.
Even though those three incidents were
locally based, they did nothing to diminish me desire to do stuff that
was not about me. You know? And, see, I am all over the place today,
Diary, so sorry about that.
Over the years I have participated in
tons of local and far-flung charitable programs. I think that being
involved in stuff beyond my own, personal needs is important, maybe even
essential for my own well being. I have volunteered and donated for
all of my adult life, and began taking my daughter to things like the
community food programs in the city near us, when she was nearly five
years old and allowed to participate. She helped to read the recipes
and create a shopping list, do the shopping and the cooking, and come
along to the sites. There she could only help to clean up the tables
and bring extras to the participants, but it was one of the things that
helped her to become the generous and careful person that she is today.
All
of this brings me to where I am on this issue today. I suspect that
few people will agree with me, Diary, but I have some strong feelings
about this.
If you are going to be charitable, then do it
locally. It is my belief that the only exception should be for any
service, product or other support for our military personnel and their
families. As far as the governments of the world are concerned, if they
are going to use military force to solve, ameliorate or defer their
issues with other governments or groups, then, as far as I am concerned
those creeps are on their own. Unfortunately, in order to play their
little war games, they need bodies to become fodder for their dreams of
manifesting on the big stage their own insecurities and shortcomings,
aspects they are unable to manage in their personal lives.
Seriously.
All of that filters down to individual people suffering. I care about
that aspect, I really and truly do. If anyone cares to dispute my
dedication to helping wherever help is needed, I am perfectly ready,
more than willing, and able, to duke it out with you in person. I do
not consider myself a particularly violent person, nor do I endorse or
support violence of any kind, and I am not the teeniest bit comfortable
handling up-close-and-personal weapons, much less those of mass
destruction, but I am willing to stand up for my beliefs, and this is
one of them. Alrighty, I am being ironical about the whole duking it
out part. I would not hit anyone or even have an argument because I do
not do conflict of any kind, but just because I am a pacifist, it does
not mean that I am a doormat.
The
keep it local
thing extends to adoptions, disaster relief, world-wide relief efforts
and anything else of which you can think or find an organization willing
to lend a helping hand. Seriously. I feel that strictly and that
strongly about this. I empathize as much as anyone when the call comes
for assistance to a far-flung country experiencing a natural disaster or
governmental screw-up or, well, anything. I used to do that, too, jump
to put in my pittance so that it would join all of the other pittances
to make enough to feed the hungry, support medical aid, send blankets,
baby clothes, clean drinking water, encourage and support local-based
enterprises and the entrepreneurial spirit, animal husbandry and all the
rest. I used to financially support the efforts of a whole bunch of
organizations, both local and all over the planet.
I know that
giving is essential to living for me. I need to share what I have with
other people and organizations that help those who have even less than I
do. Were I lucky enough to have more money than I knew what to do
with, I would be even more generous. Frankly, I am more prosperous than
many of the people on the planet, but whilst that is not an entirely
separate issue, this is already too long and even I am losing interest
in this, so much the worse for you, Diary.
However, during all of
that donating, there were always situations, circumstances or
conditions in my own community that went begging for funds. I have
always supported local needs, whatever they might be, but not to the
extent that I could have, because my efforts were diluted by all of the
other stuff I was supporting. The truth is that even when you know
about something or a lot of somethings, you simply cannot help everyone.
As
for the arguments that there will always be countries who simply cannot
help their own people, that is certainly true, but it is often the
consequence of poorly designed or implemented efforts, and way too often
corrupt officials and governments. Frankly, the keep sending aid to
those places means that you are actually supporting the local despots
and that little, if any, of the money and supplies sent to those places
ever filters down to the people who really need it. Any doubts about
that can quickly be shattered by a little research. And, the plain and
simple truth is that corrupt or clueless officials never seem to be
educated and encouraged, much less censured or punished in an effort to
change their ways, meaning that the people will always be suffering with
no end possible or in sight.
I know that makes me sound
supremely selfish, but it is not possible to do everything and I decided
to have more focus and immediacy in how I donate and volunteer. I
honor whatever and however other people choose to use their resources,
but this is what works for me; my preference is to be as up close and
personal with my giving as I am with everything else in my life.
Whatever you do, great, and there are sufficient personal opportunities
for you to help someone, because your own community is full of volunteer
opportunities just waiting to be filled. Some of the more easily found
are your faith community, veteran's organizations (even our tiny
village has one), schools, hospitals, your local volunteer center,
correctional facility, and so much more.
I care about people
first, but just as important is your local humane society/organization,
and whilst this is an issue that deserves it's own conversation, I am
going to share a bit of what I have learned from 28 years of rescue
work. One of the more important things I learned from all of those
years is that if it is possible to influence and teach children about
humane treatment of animals, it often filters into the home, and through
that child's life, how essential it is to be a good caretaker and
steward of every living thing. If you fall under the thrall of a group
that claims to be a non-kill shelter/group, it is certainly better than
nothing, because even a group that claims to be no-kill, well, the first
time they turn away any animal (any condition, temperament, health) and
even if that is related to the limits of their resources, that animal
has to go to a municipal shelter or organization, which takes in every
animal that comes to their door. No-kill groups/shelters have the
luxury of taking only the animals for which they have a decent chance of
finding permanent homes, but that means that they are simply passing
the burden to a facility that often has no alternative but the euthanize
animals who are not lucky enough to find decent homes. Municipal
shelters have limited resources, as well, but they never turn anyone or
any animal away from their doors. If a no-kill organization passes on a
single animal, for whatever reason, then they, and everyone who works
or volunteers with them, hold the same responsibility for the eventual
death of that animal, just the same as if you had been there, held the
animal and used the drugs to end it's life. No different. Clearly this
holds a large amount of energy for me, but right is right, no matter
how one tries to nuance it.
So.
There are local
volunteer centers all over the world. Just go to Google and type in
volunteer center (then add your city, town, county, whatever)
You
will find links to your center and they are wonderful at matching the
interests and skills of volunteers to the needs in your own community.
Here are some links to find local places that could really use your help and/or donations.
Big Brothers Big Sistershttp://www.bbbs.org/site/c.9iILI3NGKhK6F/b.5962335/k.BE16/Home.htmHabitat for HumanityOne of the many great things about
Habitat is their
ReStores,
where they sell materials that were left over from projects and/or
donated materials that they cannot use in their projects. This is a
great opportunity for volunteering, as well as finding home building and
repair materials for your own projects, whilst support some seriously
wonderful work.
http://www.habitat.org/default.aspxAmerican Red Cross (There is likely to be a similar organization where you live.)
http://www.redcross.org/Volunteer Matchhttp://www.volunteermatch.org/Corporation for National and Community ServiceThis includes:
- AmeriCorps
- Citizen Corps
- Learn and Serve America
- National Conference on Volunteering and Service
- Peace Corps
- Senior Corps
- Volunteers for Prosperity
- Federal Civil Service
- Foreign Service
- Military
- State and Local Government
- U. S. Public Health Service
- Veterans Affairs
- Volunteer.gov/gov
http://www.serve.gov/This kind of mess is what happens when you are not getting the right amount of sleep. Just saying.
Location still broken. Alas. How will I know where I am?
GP
Bloom where you are planted.
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| Oh, I like this one |
