Share the Message, Not the Mess

On my best day, I will never have enough resources, be it time, talent or money, to help everyone I feel a desire to assist. You’re probably in the same boat; and as we both know, we’re adrift in a very large ocean. But I fell over something yesterday, via Google, that will, I concede do little more than allow me to attempt to empty that ocean with a spoon, but still, that’s something. 

While I was at the search engine homepage, for a grin I clicked on the ‘I Feel Lucky’ button, but just as I did, I noticed it spun like a slot machine display with other ‘I Feels’ on the various tabs when you hovered over it with the cursor (don’t roll your eyes, I’m old). I hit the back button from where lucky had taken me and dinked around until the ‘I Feel Generous’ button was facing and then clicked that.

I have an android phone so I ended up here though I think a better choice of words might be I found a new starting point from which to focus my efforts. I contribute on a regular basis, when I think about it, to the Connecticut Food Bank, the New London Community Orchestra and the Veterans Village, San Diego.

About that last one, remind me sometime to tell you a truly twisted tale as to how I came to be a supporter. It had something to do with a matching pledge/bet with someone online (whom I didn’t know, but he was a friend of someone I did know, Lowell) remaining Master of His Domain for a certain number of days around the Christmas holidays. I’m not making this up, but enough for now otherwise should we ever meet, you’ll never shake my hand and I’m not even the guy in the story.

You don’t have to look at a headline or a TV news show to see the mess of this place we’ve made for ourselves. Just look out any window. And yes, there’s way too much going sideways for any of us to turn it around by ourselves but….two of us kicking in a dollar for a good cause is twice as many as just one of us doing it.

And a hundred helping hands or a thousand or a hundred thousand, or a hundred million is a damn sight more than just one. There’s dozens of these guided giving phone apps and I have little doubt that all of them work about the same whichever one you choose. It’s not where you start; it’s where you finish. And as species go, we’re a long way from finished, so let’s get started.

-bill kenny