Charity

Charity has been on my mind a lot lately.  It is getting to be towards the holidays and the school has been doing canned food drives, shoe drives, change drives, all sorts of things to help.  The conversation in the media has been focused on whether or not we should help others when we have people here who need our charity first.  Someone brought up a very interesting point, not until we were faced with being charitable towards outsiders, did our own homeless suddenly become a priority.  This really struck me.  I have been MEANING to work a soup kitchen for years.  I have been MEANING to volunteer time but I don't.  I am the queen of good intentions that tend to never ever ever amount to anything.

This is where Facebook comes into the picture doing that weird thing it does, allowing you into the thoughts and lives of people you barely know, or slightly know, or would like to know better but they are at football games on the weekends and you are camping with the Girl Scouts.  It is such a strange way to form friendships, but not really.  I like to think of it as modern day telegraph pen pals.  The messages (unless it is me), are usually short, direct and easy to digest.

One of the best aspects of this kind of communication is that it serves as a grass roots community motivator.  I certainly never would have poured a cold bucket of ice water on my head had my aunt not challenged me to on FB.  Nor would I have known enough about ALS to go online and give a small donation.  I gave a small contribution to a friend who ran a race to bring awareness and drop the stigma with depression.  I have signed petitions.  In fact today I received a letter from Senator Cornyn in response to my latest letter to him.  Facebook is directly responsible for getting me off my butt to vote in two elections (well that and my Dad, could not have faced Dad had I not voted).  Facebook helped me get to the McKinney Art walk this past weekend.  I always loose fliers but two friends who were participating had the information posted on FB so I could easily google the address in the car on my phone and get there.  You get the point, I am sure even with the pitfalls of Social Media, it has had a positive effect motivating you as well to take some action.

But back to my lack of charity.  Over the last few weeks I noticed several of my neighbors posting about ACO.  I did not know what it was so I looked it up.  It is the Allen Community Outreach.  It is a great website and it lays out a ton of ways to help without being overwhelming.  My first thought was, "Wow, this is a great resource for the GS Troop.  I need to find out what we can do to start partnering with them."  Then one of my neighbors posted that it looked like the ACO would not make their goal to provide the Thanksgiving dinners they wanted.  She gave specifics of what items were missing.  I needed to go to the grocery anyway today, how hard is it to pick up pie filling and fruit cocktail along with milk and chicken?  I got home and walked my bags to her house.  Yeah, I know, slacker's paradise, I don't even have to go drop it off, there is someone right across the street who is taking everything this afternoon.  Anyway, I was thinking how embarrassed I was not to have more.  I always do that.  I want to be grandiose and as a result end up doing nothing.  I got to her porch and there were lots of bags, obviously from different people.  None grandiose, just a little here and a little there but it was stacking up to quite a lot.  It reminded me of a grocery ad campaign in London.  "Every little helps."  It is so true.  If everyone helps a little, it ends up being a lot.

This November 20th, 6 days before Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for my family, the food in my fridge, the roof over my head, good friends.  I am also thankful to have happened into a community with a good heart, full of people who take action and care.  It is an amazing time we live in where one person can reach out through the internet telegraph and connect the dots of kindness together in a community.  Thank you to every person who sends these beacons out.  They are received.