helping hands

To the Iraq study group:

word.

To the guy at the scene of the overturned car this morning:

Thank you for not hesistating. Thank you for knowing to put pressure on that vein. Thank for being willing to put towels right on the wound. Thank you for talking to the guy. I learned a lot from you today (not the least of which was not to try to lift a 2000 lb car when the guy is in it, not under it. Sheesh.).

Let’s hear it for Thing Two!

So, Thing Two wants to adopt someone for the holidays this year; bring a little something to someone’s life that isn’t as bright and shiny as hers. Okay, I get that. We talked about options. There’s the school for homeless kids, there are local church drives, there’s the food bank and there are those little cards at the mall with wishes from little kids who do without so much. We settled on the latter and trucked off to mall-land, a place I am willing to go 3 times/year, no more. So we find the table with all the gift tags and, huh. Lessee, there’s the one for a CD player, another for an iPod, and, hmmmm, games “for my X-Box”. Thing Two pointed out that SHE doesn’t have those things. I gave her a little speech about charity not having strings or judgement attached, but, huh. We decided to come home and talk to our neighbor about her church’s gift drive. I guess we were thinking along the warm coat, or nice book, or cuddly doll lines. It gave us pause and made us think both about our own perspective and what need might feel like for someone who has less.

When we got home, there was a post on a board I frequent about a soldier known to one of our members who will be spending Christmas in Fallujah. Bingo! Thing Two (with a little help) packed up a box of magazines, Red Bull, licorice, Snickers and chips. When we shipped it off yesterday, the guy helping us told us that his brother just got back from Fallujah and that our guy was really going to love his package.

So, maybe there’s a kid in town who isn’t going to get a game for his Xbox, but there’s a soldier in Fallujah who’s getting a really sweet letter and a big box of treats. That feels pretty good.

So today I’m thinking about hands. Helping hands, bloody hands, empty hands.

the ecology of action

Something happened today that got me thinking about actions, choices and responsibility. I try to teach, and model, good judgement to Things One and Two. I want them to make their own decisions, but it’s my job to help them understand what good judgement looks like. So far, in their relatively short lives, their actions and decisions haven’t had big (or very big) consequences. Yet. So they haven’t had the experience of a bad decision having unforseen impact on other people. But that’s coming. I hope they’ll do better than what I saw today.

So, Darby and I made our usual trek to the beach. Most mornings this time of year, it’s just the regulars. Nice folks, nice dogs. But today there was a unfamiliar dog who didn’t know how to play nice. His owner walked far down the beach, leaving the dog on his own, with his bad dog manners. In short order, he attacked another dog. One man was bitten trying to pull Bad Dog off of Good Dog. He had to lay on bad dog to keep him under control while his bad owner s-l-o-w-l-y strolled up the beach. Bad “owner” claims the dog isn’t is, he just found it on the street and brought it down (with a leash) to play on the beach. Piece of information: the dog is a male pitbull.

The consequences of his choice are many:

1. There’s an injured dog.

2. There’s an injured man, who may have to undergo rabies shots.

3. The pitbull will likely be euthanized.

4. The dog beach is under siege and we’re likely to lose it within a year. This did not help.

5. Pitbulls have a very bad reputation. Good work furthering that rap.

Word to bad owner: if you’re lying to avoid responsibility and you do own the dog, and it has been vaccinated, speak up! If you don’t, untold bad juju will follow you all the days of your life.

That choice to bring the dog to the beach in the first place played out today. And it reminded me how our actions are really interactions, often with unforseeable impact. So today we’ll talk with Things One and Two about making good choices. And standing up for the consequences, whatever they may be.

local politics

How hard can it be? Hmmmm. Lessee. How about taking one giant leap from voter to campaign manager? My leap looks like a baby step compared to Wendy. It has been inspiring to watch her step up to run for school board, then grow into the role. I always knew her to be smart, it’s this extra layer of grace that’s new. I’m so proud of her and I know she’ll serve our kids well.

Internet, send your positive vibes our way tomorrow.

Oh, and Mercury? We’re kicking your butt out of retrograde. You pull any crap tomorrow we’ll see that you don’t make it across the sun on Wednesday.