Photo Credit: imashleyhello on Flickr
So there I was, wandering around the house and the
Mercantile, trying to work up some good juice for a blog post about the
holidays, and giving, and how none of us needs any more stuff…I was getting
nowhere, fast. Partly because I kept tripping over piles of stuff in my house,
and partly because I was feeling short on inspiration.
Then, I opened my email . There I found an email from Kurt’s semi-nephew X (who wishes to remain anonymous). X and his
brother are nephews of the second Mrs. Kessner, but Kurt received shared family
visits in the divorce, for which we are truly grateful, and so as the fourth –
and last – Mrs. Kessner, I benefit, too. X is not only funny, he is very, very
thoughtful, and kind. It said:
Dear All,
Merry Christmas!!!!
Because I'm only working part time this year and hate
spending (my wife's) money, I was going to buy a single goat or a llama or a
water buffalo from Heifer International and let you all know
that your gift was a fractional share of same which, as we all know, goes to
help out a worthy impoverished family somewhere on the other side of the globe.
However a lot of people here in the USA are also food insecure, especially lately,
and I remembered reading a couple years back about this guy who had created
sustainable urban farms right here in the good old Midwest.
Naturally, when I thought of giving something on behalf of you all I
thought, "Why buy the cow when you can buy the whole farm!"
So anyway that's what I did and I thought since you aren't
getting a pretty card like you get from Heifer, that the least I could do was
provide interesting details about what your gift is supporting, so here are a
few links you can follow about this organization (see below):
Best Wishes for a safe, wonderful, and happy holiday.
Let us all take a minute and thank our lucky stars that we have enough to
eat as apparently, according to info on Heifer's website, 1 in 5 children in
this country do not.
-X
p.s. Thank you in advance for any and all gifts you
sent this year (which we will open Jan 7). You are wonderful, thoughtful,
loving, family and if no power on earth will stop you from buying us stuff then
I gratefully accept your generosity. That said, we do have a lot of stuff
already and a lot of people the world over don't. Just sayin if you
donate to something that matters to you on our behalf next year, that would
equally wonderful....
Christmas Trees Before Being Cut Down
Photo Credit: xdex on Flickr
The beneficiary of my part of a cow is Will Allen’s GrowingPower, Inc.
Will Allen: The Urban Farmer from Spark Project on Vimeo.
So that's it. Just that. Maybe we don't really need all of those brightly wrapped packages. A home-grown head of lettuce, some real tomatoes, and the inspiration of people who are doing good things in the world might just be enough this holiday season. I know it is for me.
love,
Alline
