Healing Hands

Whatsoever You Do...

Tomorrow morning, Christmas Eve, Em and I will do what is becoming a tradition for us, which is serving at a breakfast for the homeless, at our church. When I was younger, there was a restaurant that was for all intents and purposes a hang out for the large disenfranchised community that congregate down in the "Heartside" district. That restaurant was called Casey's and because little people run big government bureaucracy, it was decided that Casey's was in violation of some codes and needed to come up with what may as well have been a quadrillion dollars to fix them.

Predictably, Casey's shut down. I went there one Christmas Eve with my dad when I was younger and it changed me. Now I am proud to be a member of a church that took up the mantel of the breakfast and even the name. Along with the breakfast come the socks. Casey's socks are big warm comfy socks stuffed to the brim with necessities and niceties, from deodorant to candy. The youth of the church put them together from items purchased and donated. We do hundreds of socks. All are given out. We could make more.

So, it's Casey's breakfast tomorrow, but it's Bill's reality check. I whine quite a lot in life and on this blog about not having all I want and money being tight. I need some not so gentle reminders of how so many people live and how they would give their I teeth, assuming they still had teeth, to live like I do. We all need to be reminded of the blessings upon which we have been bestowed. I'm cool if you don't make God a central part of your life, or carry a health suspicion, or subscribe to ideas of a higher power that differ from my interpretation and belief. I'm cool if you don't believe in anything at all or don't know what to believe and so you try not to think about it. I've been there. But, I think you are living a life of tragedy and emptiness if you do not take occasion to serve those people who are the least among us.

Do it in the name of simple human decency or anthropological curiosity, just please do it. There are people who rely on your kindness, your smile and your warmth to get them through one night. One night that would my my whole year of bad nights look like a trip to the candy store. And since I am such a libertarian, the only way we can get the government's focus back on what it should be is for we private citizens to take care of our own with love and care and efficiency that would overpower the best of what government could do making all our live better.

Wow, one vignette, two soap boxes.

Time to Lighten the Mood

Since this is my blog and since the main portion of feedback I get is from humor, I guess I can't leave on a heavy note, so I will add this little after dinner mint.

My internet access has been going in and out over the last few days. It's comcastic. Anyhow, this morning I was listening to streaming radio while my connection went down and the stream went with it. How ever will I listen to the radio now, I wondered? It took me a full two minutes to realize I could, you know, turn on the radio. ahem. I'm not a smart man.

And Now, Merry Christmas

In the immortal words of the amortal Krusty the Klown:

Have a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a kwazy Kwanza a tip top Tet and a blissful, dignified Ramadan.

I shall see you all on the other side. I hope yours is good, fun and safe! God Bless!