Giving (Cows)

When we last left our heroine, she was pondering giving. Emotional giving, to be specific. And yes, I’m still pondering.

Meanwhile, however, I’ve been noticing instances of more tangible giving, which, let’s face it, does offer some emotional rewards.

For example, yesterday I was out in my driveway at 7:00 A.M. facing the most monstrously ugly of all gigantic snow berms. The wet, mucky feet of snow from the road, which had been packed down and driven on by cars all day, was finally scraped up by the plow in the middle of the night and deposited … where? In my driveway. Of course. The subsequent drop in temperature meant that I had large boulders of ice cemented together in a mountain whose summit reached just over the hood of my car. Clearly I had done something to offend the county plow driver.

But, alas. This is life. If only I had gotten up 45 minutes earlier, I might not have been there, huffing and puffing with my shovel, red-faced and sweaty in my desperation to dislodge recalcitrant icebergs. But it was extremely important that I get my car out of the driveway immediately.

IT WAS A POWDER DAY!

And suddenly, there was my neighbor, Bill. Bill runs a plow service, and is contracted by various other neighbors to plow their driveways. And while he was on his way to one of those houses, he paused, put his plow in reverse, and scooped away my entire berm. Now that is giving, people! It took him 30 seconds, and he saved me a morning full of frustration. (A morning of good cross-training, too, I know. But powder skiing is much better cross-training!) Needless to say, I’ll be checking to find out Bill’s favorite brand of bourbon.

Another revelation about giving came from John and Hank Green’s Project for Awesome. In addition to being the author of two of my favorite YA books of all time, (Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns), John has a massive presence on the internet, along with his brother Hank. Specifically, they have a mighty popular youtube channel. Every year they utilize this presence to raise money for charity in their Project for Awesome. I'll refrain from explaining all the details of how it works, but their basic idea is that by working together, we (as in, all of us) can do amazing things. This year, they raised $100,000 for charity, all from small donations. Yup. That’s awesome all right.

Just to repeat: If we all work together, we can do amazing things.

And finally, in my observations of giving, I saw that my favorite author-blogger is running his own blog-fundraiser for Heifer International.

First of all, what a great name, right? I love Heifers.

Second, here’s what they’re all about (from the HI website): “Heifer International is a global nonprofit with a proven solution to ending hunger and poverty in a sustainable way. Heifer helps empower millions of families to lift them out of poverty and hunger to self-reliance through gifts of livestock, seeds and trees and extensive training, which provide a multiplying source of food and income.”

They give cows to needy people! And llamas! Llamas are very popular right now.

(Photo courtesy of Heifer International / Darcy Kiefel)

Also, they give goats.

It’s an excellent organization, and I’m excited to be a tiny little part of the fundraising. You can be a part of it, too! Following Nathan’s example, I (along with my awesome, agreeable husband) pledge to donate $1 to Heifer International for every comment you leave on this post between now and midnight on Christmas Eve. So, comment away!

Of course, I do have a financial ceiling for this donation, (which I won’t share with you, so as not to discourage comments) but let’s see if we can reach it. If you’re a lurker around these parts, now’s the time to come out of the woodwork.

You can only comment once, but if you make a comment worthy of a response, I’ll also donate a dollar for my response comment. (Hint: Ask me questions!)

In your comment, please tell me:

a) Your name
b) The corner of the planet in which you reside
c) (optional) A goal or wish for 2011


Remember Anne’s comment from my last post? Let’s see if she’s right.


And finally, my own wish for 2011 is that we all work together.