The Season of Giving

Saturday, 03 December 2011
A week from today, the family and I will be attending a gift wrapping for children who have to spend the holidays at Children’s Hospital. Every December, there’s this big push to be magnanimous, which I definitely feel is superior to the push to be consumerist…so I’m all for looking for ways to donate and volunteer.
Problem is, many such opportunities are religiously based. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that religions use their unique power to organize and collect money and put it towards doing good, but I’m not crazy about the fact that they shave some money off the top for their church. Also, I never know if the dollar I donate will be used 90% to care for children with spina bifida and 10% to tell teenagers that condoms are evil.
So, this seems like a good cause. Isla has spent some time at Children’s, so I feel a certain kinship with them. Also, the event will be taking place approximately 1.8 miles from our front door and is hosted by Minnesota Atheists and Green Mill.
Here are the details. Join us if you’d like – it would be fun to have more friends there.
Anyway, I bring this up today because today we went shopping for the kids. It was fun to pick out toys with Owen. The rules were basically, “let’s look for inexpensive toys that kids can play with in the hospital.” And he did a good job picking out a few things. Jennifer also grabbed some socks and underwear for kids.
Later, we went to the local Goodwill, where I hung out in the book section:


Sunday, December 04, 2011
Today we walked over to our local Subway Sandwiches.
They’re having an event today where, if you bring in a blanket, you can get a free 6-inch sub. The blankets go to a women’s shelter. So, in keeping with the “season of giving,” and our desire for free food, we lunched at the local Subway.
Here’s the crazy thing: we donated four blankets, had the Sandwich Artiste’ prepare sandwiches for us, selected our chips and cookies and drinks, then heard the price: a grand total of $6.41. I looked in my wallet, and saw I only had two dollars. No problem, I reached for my check card. But then the employee stopped me and told me the credit card swipe thingy was inoperative. Thanks for the heads up, pal.
In a fit of stupidity, I looked over at Jennifer (who was getting the kids situated at a table) and said, “I guess we’re not eating here, let’s go.” She asked what the problem was, I explained it, then she said, “Well, can’t we still take the sandwiches?” Oh, um, yeah, I guess that made sense.
So then, as I’m zipping up my coat, the guy in line behind us offers to pay. He asks if I live close, I tell him I do, so then he says, “Well I work right at the fire station right there.” He pointed across the street, then added, “So just bring me the money later.” Wow. That was nice of him.
So then, he starts ordering his food and I realize, hey, since we do live so close, I should just run home and get the cash. So that’s what I do. Then, as I run back to the restaurant, I see the fireman waiting at the corner. I say, “thanks again,” and keep right on running. Why didn’t I ask him to wait while I got change real quick? I don’t know. Sometimes I’m a complete bonehead.
Anyway, the fireman had the presence of mind (great quality for a fireman to have, by the way), to realize what I was doing, so he turns around and follows me. I reimburse him, thank him again, then sit down to dine with my family.

Monday, December 05, 2011
Have you ever received one of those end-of-the-year letters from a distant relative? I guess people send them out at Christmastime, in honor of Ra’s rebirth or something.
I was talking with a co-worker today, and she said she is tired of those letters that paint an unrealistically positive image of the family’s year. Many of them, I guess, are just boring lists of accomplishments, as if the family have leaped from one rosy event to another. I compared the letters to photo albums – no one includes the bad events, so the end result is a skewed depiction of the time frame.
If I remember right (and I usually do), Jennifer and I have only received one of those letters ever. It came in the mail about ten years ago, from her cousin and his wife. They were newly married and trying to do the polite thing by including us in the loop. Silly them, they didn’t recall that we were Witnesses and therefore didn’t celebrate Christmas letters of good news. I’m sure someone cued them in on their social faux pas, because they did not send us any in subsequent years.
But here’s the thing: even though we are now devil-worshiping, blood-drinking, goat sacrificers who throw caution to the wind by spending time with family members who have different viewpoints from us, we still haven’t received any of these letters.
My theory is that email has been the death knell for the snail mail tradition. Or maybe no one wants us to know what their family has been up to.