Red Ryder BB Guns

Well Christmas has come and gone. It seems to start so early in the year but then ends so bloody fast. This year, as you know from the posts I've managed to squeek out, it's supposed to be a modest year for gift giving - no importance placed on the Red Ryder BB Gun but rather on giving and sharing with those deeply less fortunate.

I'm very pleased to report that while I did get some wonderful pressies this year, I also know that between my contributions and the ones from my friends, I raised (to my knowledge) over $600 for the Fistula Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. Not only that but another friend of mine gave gifts this year that benefit St. Jude Children's Hospital. Liz Clairborne partnered with them and so one can get a nice objet and make a contribution to a wonderful organization. She told me she thought about it in conjunction with what I was doing/campaigning for this Christmas - which is the key. Just putting out the suggestion of your Christmas gift have meaning can be contagious. Another one of my friends who is a bit more wealthy asked for Red products and got the iPod Nano Red and in turn gave me a gift card for Gap so I could buy more Red for myself.

I went to Christmas Eve service with my grandmother this year and the message is - as it often is - how Christmas gets lost in the concerns of the moment and "how" we celebrate. But, it was very rewarding to stand there and realize that did not apply to me this year. I know I can do more and I am energized and motived infinitely by the opportunities to just see and do things just a bit differently and make the world a better place.

In a video I watched, Warren Buffett told Univ. of Nebraska students that the greatest challenge their generation faces is the common knowledge and application Nuclear Technology and how to control that. I'm surprised he - or Bill Gates sitting next to him - did not have the answer to that problem: Reduce desperation in the world. I know I'm committing intellectual fraud by using Hitler as an example but Hitler came to power because the Germans were emotionally, financially and culturally desperate. Desperation is oxygen to bad decisions, following the wrong leader. It's why people sell their souls to the devil. Reduce desperation and how will the next madman come to power? Mad men need desperate people. So by sharing the wealth, even our relative wealth, is one powerful combatant. Educated, enlightened, fed people who are respected do not follow mad men. People who help people become educated, enlightened and fed are true leaders. It's the perfect system, so why does no one do it?

Anyway, in many ways this is the best Christmas I've ever had despite some obvious changes from years past. But if you can turn something ugly into something beautiful, well, who can argue with that?

So, onto the New Year! Gotta think of resolutions to break!!!!