Halleluiah

Generate your own church sign here. (Found via Abstract Dynamics.) I was going to say "pontificate" instead of testify, being raised Catholic and all, but this is a Baptist church sign. I'm not sure Catholic churches do these kind of signs anyway - do they?

9:01:18 PM      trackback [] 

How to sign over your estate
My friend, Tom, emailed me this:

I want to rant about the latest WBUR fund raising campaign - they want us to write them into our wills! Holy cow! First, they interrupt "Click and Clack" for those cutesy, interminable pleas for money, enticing us with cute umbrellas and tote bags, then they want our cars "Unused, or unneeded" (?) please donate to WBUR", now they want us to put WBUR in our estate planning!

 

First, I have no estate, and if I did, they are the last people I would remember in my will. I mean, who gets the cash after I cash out? WBUR? Jane Cristof? Robin Young? Tom and Ray? And who's to say WBUR will be around when I cash out? PBS is one of the top targets of the neo-cons (If they can silence Baghdad radio, why not PBS?). Does that mean I have to attach a rider (or is it a codicil - I've always wanted to use that word) to my will saying if WBUR is gone when I'm gone, to send the money to, say - Common Cause? What were they thinking? It must be a desperate time in Public Radio when they are seeking the support of dead people. <end of rant>

I hear ya! I’ve been screening phone calls (thanks to caller ID) from my alma mater for over a week now. It's fund-raising time of year. They have students call (probably some poor financial aid students like I was) and I can never say No to them. I usually try to throw them something – I’m sure my $25 oughta pay for all those new campus buildings.

Anyone keen to donate in either of our names, go to WBUR or the Smith College Alumnae Fund. Tell 'em we sent ya.

Note: I do want to encourage donations to my favorite charity, Save the Children (website here). And of course you can click on The Hunger Site, Breast Cancer site, etc. every day for free to get donations for them from their sponsors. See my sidebar under Misc. or click here.

1:10:59 PM      trackback [] 

The Reeve Effect

The New Yorker (Nov. 10) has a story on Christopher Reeve’s unrelenting push for spinal cord research. It’s amazing what he’s accomplished by putting his willpower and drive to work on his own healing and on the science.

Several years ago, I was visiting my parents just as I was coming down with a cold. I felt really lousy. My mother said, “For Chrissakes, Leslee, you’ve only got a cold.” Then she dragged out all her more serious past traumas, topping it off with “and did you see Christopher Reeve on TV last night – there’s no self-pity there!” Not only did I not feel better, I hated Reeve after that.

Ah, time heals. And so does Reeve. Good article by Jerome Groopman. It’s in print only, but there’s an interview with Groopman online. He talks about his longtime study of the effects of hope on illness, and how hope is different from optimism:

It’s an active process, and it’s clear-eyed. It doesn’t assume that things work out for the best. In fact, it very much assesses all of the obstacles, all of the problems, all the potential for failure. And through all of that terrain… it sees a path to the future. And I think that without hope you’re nowhere. You can’t proceed. With hope, you have a chance.

He adds that “because it’s uncertain the future is not defined. There is the potential, the chance… to improve.” Words for all of us.

9:19:38 AM      trackback []