I wasn't going to do this

I lived through That Tuesday.

That's it. It seems to me (and this is just me) that my posting some mushy bit of reverie on what it means, or meant, or what's happened since is an exercise in public scab picking.

I know there are a lot of people out there for whom this date has powerful, emotional; even overwhelming associations. I know this because I get that way every year, on the a different anniversary, about a different epochal event (and one which, I think, is still shaping us, even though most of us barely know it existed any more).

But ginmar has managed to sum up a lot of the itchy places in my head.

Go, and ponder.

Broke, but trying

John Scalzi (Whatever tells me that archer904 has promised to open his wallet to the tune of $1 for every comment.

Actually, as John Scalzi says, he's promised more than that.



For those of you who read me casually (or less often than that), my name is Tony Hellmann. I'm a non-fiction writer with a day job and a finished novel I'm trying to get published. I'm not rich, but I'm not poor either.

I donated $20 to the American Red Cross the day after the levees broke. I didn't feel like it was enough, and I have coworkers that feel bad because they can't afford to send $10.

I've decided to do something about it, for those that feel bad that money in their wallets is outpaced by the sympathy in their hearts.

I've decided to send a dollar to the American Red Cross for every person that leaves a comment to this entry by next Sunday. I'll also send two dollars for every literary agent or person with a published novel who leaves a comment, because you folks have fans/large readerships, and fans like to participate with the objects of their attention. To the same effect, I'll donate $10 if your last name is Nielsen-Hayden or Scalzi. :)

Mention this on your blogs, drive the comment numbers up, and donate money without spending any. I'll post a PDF of the Red Cross receipt after I donate.

I will, as did Mr. Scalzi, encourage you to hit the link. If you are not an LJ-user, let archer904 know, as you fill out the anonymous comment who you are. If he gets swamped, and has to cap the donation, don't get pissed. He's doing more than a lot of people.

Ego-boo

In the course of trying to find an old post I found LJ Seek which is a search engine dedicated to LJs.

It has a rating system for the LJs it mentions in results. Each star, it seems, represents a up to 9 links (so 4 links gets one star, 10 would get two).

I decided to see who all has been linking to me, and when. It's both gratifying, and sad. Gratifying because people I've never heard of have been telling people I am fun, or funny, or perceptive. In some cases they have even called me eloquent.

Sad because, for all that there are new people for me to back in the appreciation of, I know there are a lot of people they haven't listed, and the listings they cite go back at least 18 months.

It's also frustrating because I know I made a post about Maia and I going to Cambria, but they don't.

C ést la guerre.

Giving

So, archer904 is up to about a grand. I suspect he will be close to 2,500 bucks before he's done.

I was thinking about this earlier. He says he isn't going to get hit so badly he can't make the donation. He may be donating more than he expected to, but it's not going to break him.

He could have just looked in the bank and figured out every spare penny he has and given it to the Red Cross, or Noah's Wish, or whomever he thought could to the most good. And that would have been good.

So why should I, who posted a comment, and so caused a dollar I don't own to be sent the way of some needy people, be happy because so many others have done so?

Those people haven't actually contributed (other than to give a reason for someone else to donate). He could have given as much (or more) than this. Yes, because he chose this method they have taken part, some small amount of help had them as the proximate cause, and that's a good thing. They can be comforted by it (I am).

But it's bigger than that, and I'm trying to figure out why.

I think, as I've been saying elsewhere, this points out that we are all in this together. This lets a whole lot of people, who don't know each other (save by those degrees of separation pull on the same rope and lift some people out of the mire.

So, kudos to archer904 and a nod to all of those who chose to help him be generous.






Edit: I think I know part of what makes this so uplifting. He set no limits. He didn't say, I can give X, and if enough of you care, they will get that much. No, he said he would give as much as people cared. He is living an ideal, and we can share in it.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;