We spent the weekend in Seattle at the Emerald City ComiCon, where the Arteest was exhibiting some of his work on the upcoming graphic novel. A bunch of folks from Periscope Studios (where the Arteest works during the week) wrote haikus to encapsulate the convention vibe. Here are mine:
Masks, spandex in droves
I laugh, grimace, wonder who
They are underneath.
And:
Your jeans are skinny,
Mister teenage hipster kid,
But your butt isn’t.
So here’s some food for thought…
What do you do when there’s a food crisis throughout the developing world, where simple sustenance like rice and beans have literally doubled in price in the last six months? What do you do when you know children are dying of malnutrition at horrifying rates, and countless babies are lost to dehydration due to unsafe water supplies that cause life-threatening diarrhea?
And then, what do you do when you receive an originally unplanned, largely unnecessary check in the mail for six hundred dollars — a check that the government would like to see you put toward a large discretionary purchase like a flat screen TV or an iPhone?
As difficult as these times are for a lot of Americans, there’s just no comparison between what may or may not be categorized as an economic recession, and the life or death crises happening in dozens of developing countries around the world.
It only takes an hour and a half to get to Haiti from the U.S. — it’s a short plane ride from Miami to Port au Prince — but step off the plane and you are a world away from home, surrounded by abject poverty and conditions that are akin to the worst you’ve seen of Africa.
So here’s my challenge:
If the economic stimulus check you are about to receive is a welcome relief in a very tough financial time in your life, thank God for His provision, and give 20% of it away to an organization that serves people who need it even more than you.
If the check represents “fun money” that you might usually use for a vacation or a gadget, give half of it away. Or better — all of it.
There are many, many organizations that will use your money wisely — but in case you’d like some suggestions, here are some of my favorites:
What do you think? What are your favorite organizations serving the third world?
I will never be one of those Yard People — people like our wonderful next door neighbors, who can be found a good number of weekends spending all day Saturday and Sunday weeding, planting, watering, pruning and generally making their own little plot of land look quite spectacular. We pretty much set our sights on not being the worst maintained yard on the block.
I can handle mowing the lawn, but that’s about it. Historically, watering plants has not been one of my strengths. Weeding is my Achilles heel. But this weekend both sets of parental units gave us a great gift — a whole Saturday of elbow grease in our yard, working to set right a whole season worth of disregard and heavy rain. The weeds in our backyard were thick as my beloved’s hair, the planting schematic non-existent, the visual effect less than appealing.
After one day’s work from six determined laborers, the rambunctious bluebells have been contained, weeds whacked, lawn edged, and suddenly this looks like a place I wouldn’t mind having a picnic! Sunday we shared our neighbor’s rented rototiller and turned the earth in a couple of prime garden beds, and I sauntered off to the store to buy seeds, plants and soil amendments for a small garden patch.
Here’s what’s in the ground:
The Arteest was inspired to hang the hammock, and last night we ate dinner in the yard. I know I’ll never be one of those Yard People, but hopefully we can at least persevere with this little vegetable garden and enjoy some fresh goodies this summer!
