Monday, November 16, 2009
Anonymous
- I planned on revealing the truths in my Up DVD giveaway today, but something came up over night that I feel deserves some attention.
My anon commenters tend to be negative, rude, or ads for Cialis.
(Oh, I can't wait to see the keyword hits on that one!)
But I got an anonymous comment last night, or, I guess, early this morning that I think deserves to be addressed. This is in regards to my fundraising efforts for Habitat for Humanity:
- Anonymous said...
Isn't it kind of wrong to ask your readers for money? If you want to go on this trip you should of earned it yourself. Your going to concerts and movies all the time. You should use that money for your trip instead of asking other people to pay for it.
The truth is that I had a hard time writing the post to ask for donations. I've had a donation tab on my sidebar for a few months, but I never really said anything about it. It was just there in case anyone felt inclined to contribute, but I didn't really want to ask.
I thought about getting a second job to pay for the trip. I looked around for some opportunities. There were two problems with this, though. Unfortunately, the economy being what it is, many of these jobs that were formerly filled by high school and college students are now staffed by laid off office workers with degrees and long resumes. I could compete with them, but they are trying to survive. I can't compete with that. And besides, I already only get about 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I just don't know where I would fit in a second job right now.
As for my fun and frivolous activities, well, they are surprisingly few and far between. I bought the tickets for U2 months before I knew I would even be applying to build a house on the other side of the world. I bought the plane tickets for Seattle about a week or so before I was accepted. I saw two movies last week for a grand total of $6 because I went at the cheapest time of the day and used a gift card. Before that, I hadn't been to a movie theater since August.
I haven't bought new clothes in ages.
Most of the books I've gotten for my book clubs have been borrowed from friends or from the library.
My biggest expenses are rent/utilities, gas and food. I know I'm a bit of a snob, but I am just not at a point in my life where I am ready to start living in my car. I could move closer to work to spend less on gas, but I am getting a really great deal on the place I live and I don't plan to keep my current job until retirement. Honestly, I would probably have moved on already if the economy hadn't tanked. And I know I could stand to drop a couple of pounds, but I hear anorexia is not the way to do it. So, I guess I'll keep eating. For now.
And despite all of this, I have managed to save up and contribute $600 on my own toward the cost of the trip. That's not counting the cost of renewing my passport, buying a plane ticket, buying appropriate work clothes and shoes, and paying for a visa to get into the country.
There is also another aspect to all of this. The fact is I'm not just asking people to fund some exotic vacation. I am going to Papua New Guinea to spend two weeks building a home for people who really need it. People who have worked hard and scrimped and saved their meager incomes to provide decent housing for their families. It's a worthwhile project and, like most worthwhile projects, it costs money.
I am fortunate that I have a job that makes it possible for me to be gone for such a long time, and that I am healthy and unattached and able to go out and do this. A lot of people can't. You have jobs with very little vacation time. You have young children and school and a whole host of other responsibilities keeping you from being able to drop out of your life for a couple of weeks to go out and do something like this. Donating is a great opportunity to help make a difference in the world when you can't go out and do it yourself.
I hope this helped answer your questions, Anonymous. I hope I didn't sound rude or defensive. That's not what I was going for. I understand where you're coming from and wanted to respond in a way that helps clarify my position. I hope your comment was not fueled by the misunderstanding that I was expecting donations. I wasn't. I simply put it out there and have been stunned and amazed by the incredible response I've received.
I'm still not there. I'm about 75% of the way to where I need to be. I still need to find another $500 today or I'm not going to Papua New Guinea. At least not this time. The funds that have been collected will be held and put toward another trip. We'll see what happens. It's not over, although, at this point, $500 feels like it might as well be $5000.
Whatever happens, happens.
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"You know what they say. If you don't have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me."
~Clairee Belcher, Steel Magnolias