Donating to a cause
Last night (Sunday night) just after Dinner the phone rang. You know the drill: "Hi Mr. Shaw, I am Joe from the Vietnam Veterans Association" or somesuch thing. Normally I interrupt at this point and tell them that I will not be donating because I have too many organizations calling for donations. I'm drawing the line.
I wasn't always like this. Remember, I came to Atlanta in '98 from England and at some point during the immigration process I checked a box that said "fresh meat, please call often". I don't remember that form, but it must have happened that way because no sooner had the deposit been paid for the telephone line (Incidentally $1,000 for someone with no U.S. credit history, can you believe that?) than the fire service started calling.
And, being a greenhorn limey I gave the first guy who called 15 minutes of my time and $50. After all, it's an annual donation for a good cause, right?
Ok, so I quickly learned the error of my ways, and was forced to stop donating to anyone in the hope that my name gets off that goddamn list.
Until last night. I did drink a glass of wine last night with dinner, and when Joe called he caught me at a sentimental moment. So www.GVVA.org got another $50, and I'm sure I got posted to some industry-wide forum as a new crop to be harvested.
But hell, what do you do when everyone really does deserve your help?