The Middle of January

mood: Frenetic
music: Addicted by Simple Plan
------------------------------------------
So, fell off the blog wagon again, this time for quite a while. What's wrong with me? Other people blog daily, several times daily in many cases. Have I nothing to say? Have I too much to do? I think it's the latter.

Anyway, I'm trying out a new plan to battle the annual winter depression I've noticed the last couple of years. Keep busy! I mean really busy. I have so many projects on the go that I'm having trouble juggling everything, and there are other people depending on me for things, so I can't just drop things. But on the up side, I haven't had time to think about it being winter. I mean, I know it's winter, but I'm not dwelling on how much more difficult everything is. Also doing Tae Bo faithfully. So far, so good.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the response to the tsunami--so overwhelming, of course, and I contributed to the Red Cross to help. But then, in the latter days, wondering as many people are, why do we respond so willingly to a crisis like this one, and others leave us--not untouched, but not feeling that we can do anything about them. Such as AIDS in Africa. Or people displaced by war. And so on. They are not bigger crises, only different.

The conclusion I've reached is that it turns on whether we can see how money will help the problem or not. It's easy to see how money will help the tsunami survivors. Villages have to be rebuilt. Medical supplies have to be bought. Aid workers have to be supported. People need blankets, food, seed for farming. Concrete things that money will assist. However, it's not so easy to see how money will help change attitudes about AIDS and bring about cultural changes in Africa, or stop powerful men from waging war in distant countries. Throwing money at these types of problems doesn't look like a viable solution.

But it probably is. Money can help support drug research, treatment, and education about AIDS. Money helps aid organizations care for people in trouble because of war and unrest that they can do nothing about. If you really think about it, money is at the root of most of the inequities in the world today. So if more of it flows from us to them, it has to make a difference. Doesn't it?

One thing I learned today: Here's a good deal: buy a copy of Telling Tales, the short story collection edited by Nobel-prize winner Nadine Gordimer. Enjoy all the stories, and the fact that all proceeds go to help fund AIDS treatment and education.