Firstly, between work and now this post, I feel like I’ve been writing my fool head off all night. Secondly, there are worse feelings. I actually kind of like writing now that I have some critical distance on Dante’s seventh circle graduate school and I’m no longer required to spew forth academic nonsense on command. Incidentally, for those of you academics and recovering academics out there, have you seen this Random Academic Sentence Generator from the University of Chicago? It’s hilarious, although it brings back memories of that intense terror that I’m the only person in the classroom that doesn’t know what the hell is going on. So yeah, funny in a traumatic kind of way. Ha?
So summary of previous paragraph: writing = good, graduate school = v. expensive therapy
Right. Moving on.
I took Sweet Girl down to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank today to drop off some food per our previous conversation. We had never been down there before, and I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw. The people there were so kind and helpful, and took the time to talk to us despite the fact that they were noticeably busy. When they gave away Christmas baskets last year, they gave away 1 million pounds of food in two days. I can’t get my head around that number. They typically have about 3 million pounds of food stored away at any given time. They have a HUUUUGE warehouse that we got to see, and they have massive scales to weigh it all as it arrives. I have to admit that I teared up when I walked into the warehouse. It was SO MUCH FOOD. And our donation of about 30 pounds was so small. And despite all that food, people still don’t have enough to eat. I can’t get my head around that either. I am BEYOND privileged (I refuse to say ‘blessed’ because despite my currently ambivalent religious leanings, I refuse to believe that God ‘blesses’ some with enough to eat and then would rather the rest of us starve). My daughter is growing up with all she needs and then some. It is our responsibility to give what we can, and it is our responsibility to foster that little seed of generosity in our child. So we’re going to look into some opportunities there to volunteer where Sweet Girl can participate. They’re apparently starting up a young kid’s program at the food bank, and we’ll see if it’s something she can be a part of. Again, throwing this out to the locals: anyone else interested in joining up? Or maybe the local Columbus bloggers could host a food drive for them? Or something? Help me out here, peeps.
Finally, I’ve been telling Sweet Girl about all the things you guys do to give back and help the hungry. She likes that. She asks some questions while we talk, but it’s obvious she’s thinking about all of this and taking it all in. I know it’s a lot to ask a nearly 3-year old to think about. Hell, it’s a lot for me to think about, too. But I want her to know that there are lots of good people in this world who do good things, and that she has the potential to do her own good things to make a sometimes crappy world a little better. And if that resonates with her? Well, what more could I ask for?
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