Viral Challenges
My wife nominated me last night for the Thankfulness Challenge - over the course of the next seven days, I am to try to enumerate three things a day for which I am thankful (and they are really supposed to be *specific* things or people), and then challenge three others each day to do it for themselves. The idea is to get us thinking about our blessings - the old church song, "Count your blessings, name them one by one" is very much involved here.
On the other hand, there is the "Ice Bucket Challenge" for ALS that has, at the time of this writing, apparently generated some seventy million dollars for research. I haven't found the origins for it yet (haven't really been looking, either) but my understanding was that it was along the lines of, give $100 to ALS research or pour a bucket of ice water over your head, then challenge your friends to make the same choice. Somewhere along the lines, this morphed into give the $100 and creatively dump the ice water on your head. Videos are zinging around Youtube and Facebook of anyone and everyone doing everything from a single bucket with some ice cubes in it to Randy Carlyle getting doused with the half-melted leftovers in the Zamboni at the ACC.
I won't be doing it. If anyone challenges me, they'll get to see a picture of me with a cheque to the ALS association in my hand, but that will be it. No video, no dousing, nope, nada, not going to happen. I'm not afraid of the shock of the cold water. I once went into a swimming pool that was 57 degrees because I was in Florida over New Year's, dammit, and I was going to go swimming on this vacation! I lasted about ten seconds, but it was enough to satisfy the requirement! I don't share in the "You'll be feeling what ALS people go through" cry for solidarity that has been used to justify it. Sorry, and I apologize for the word, but that's bullshit. In thirty seconds, you will be dry, and the layer of water on your skin will either have warmed up or run away. And the person with ALS will be thirty seconds closer to being unable to walk, talk, feed or clothe themselves.
Now, some of the goofballs who have done this have flopped, amazingly, to the point where several rumours are circulating about deaths due to buckets/barrels/etc filled with water landing on people and breaking their necks or other vital body parts. None have been verified. Like a game of telephone, the video is watched by someone who says, "they must have," which morphs into, "they did," and then turns into, "did you hear about," and then "stop! it's dangerous!" About as many people have died from the ice bucket challenge as have contracted autism from vaccinations.
But I won't be dumping water on my head.
Don't get me wrong. ALS is a horrible disease. The wife of a friend succumbed to it several years ago, not long before a colleague of mine was diagnosed with it. They died by inches, mind intact the whole way, and I wish it were not a part of this world and won't miss it if we can get rid of it in my lifetime.
I also don't buy the argument that giving to ALS will eat into the charity dollars that other groups receive. Those dollars are restricted by the simple fact that there are so MANY social, cultural and health problems that need money to survive. A friend of mine once tried to cut back on the charities he was giving to and counted sixty-six receipts in his charitable file! He resolved to cut back to twenty, but each of the forty-six that he eliminated cried out to him that he was hurting someone by pulling out; of course, if he'd kept them and pulled out of others, they'd have been pleased as Punch, but that's another issue. But no, this is a one-time, viral outburst, and I hope the ALS researchers can make use of this surge because I doubt they'll get it again.
But where, I ask, is the viral challenge to be good to each other? To go visit a sick person in the hospital? To go sit with a resident of a nursing home? To buy the homeless person on the street a sandwich and a coffee? To listen on the other end of the phone while a depressed person rails on about the problems they see in their lives? To talk said depressed person off the ledge if the call comes through at 3am? To love one another, as Christ loved us? And to do it where no one can see you, where no one is filming you, where no one will applaud you, and where no one may thank you?
You see, we're using social media peer pressure to try to do positive things, but so many of them are one-and-done shows. And it is peer pressure - do it or be nagged and ridiculed by your friends for apparent cowardice! That part of it makes me want to dig in my heels right there, and you'd think I was shooting the sky except it's not my trigger finger you're seeing!
I guess my challenge would be to do something real for someone who really needs it. People with ALS don't need your wet head; researchers for the cure do need our dollars to make things happen. And the world as a whole needs more love, more peace, more laughter and more wholeness. Don't stop on my say-so - if you want to, be my guest! But the world needs more than that from you.
On the other hand, there is the "Ice Bucket Challenge" for ALS that has, at the time of this writing, apparently generated some seventy million dollars for research. I haven't found the origins for it yet (haven't really been looking, either) but my understanding was that it was along the lines of, give $100 to ALS research or pour a bucket of ice water over your head, then challenge your friends to make the same choice. Somewhere along the lines, this morphed into give the $100 and creatively dump the ice water on your head. Videos are zinging around Youtube and Facebook of anyone and everyone doing everything from a single bucket with some ice cubes in it to Randy Carlyle getting doused with the half-melted leftovers in the Zamboni at the ACC.
I won't be doing it. If anyone challenges me, they'll get to see a picture of me with a cheque to the ALS association in my hand, but that will be it. No video, no dousing, nope, nada, not going to happen. I'm not afraid of the shock of the cold water. I once went into a swimming pool that was 57 degrees because I was in Florida over New Year's, dammit, and I was going to go swimming on this vacation! I lasted about ten seconds, but it was enough to satisfy the requirement! I don't share in the "You'll be feeling what ALS people go through" cry for solidarity that has been used to justify it. Sorry, and I apologize for the word, but that's bullshit. In thirty seconds, you will be dry, and the layer of water on your skin will either have warmed up or run away. And the person with ALS will be thirty seconds closer to being unable to walk, talk, feed or clothe themselves.
Now, some of the goofballs who have done this have flopped, amazingly, to the point where several rumours are circulating about deaths due to buckets/barrels/etc filled with water landing on people and breaking their necks or other vital body parts. None have been verified. Like a game of telephone, the video is watched by someone who says, "they must have," which morphs into, "they did," and then turns into, "did you hear about," and then "stop! it's dangerous!" About as many people have died from the ice bucket challenge as have contracted autism from vaccinations.
But I won't be dumping water on my head.
Don't get me wrong. ALS is a horrible disease. The wife of a friend succumbed to it several years ago, not long before a colleague of mine was diagnosed with it. They died by inches, mind intact the whole way, and I wish it were not a part of this world and won't miss it if we can get rid of it in my lifetime.
I also don't buy the argument that giving to ALS will eat into the charity dollars that other groups receive. Those dollars are restricted by the simple fact that there are so MANY social, cultural and health problems that need money to survive. A friend of mine once tried to cut back on the charities he was giving to and counted sixty-six receipts in his charitable file! He resolved to cut back to twenty, but each of the forty-six that he eliminated cried out to him that he was hurting someone by pulling out; of course, if he'd kept them and pulled out of others, they'd have been pleased as Punch, but that's another issue. But no, this is a one-time, viral outburst, and I hope the ALS researchers can make use of this surge because I doubt they'll get it again.
But where, I ask, is the viral challenge to be good to each other? To go visit a sick person in the hospital? To go sit with a resident of a nursing home? To buy the homeless person on the street a sandwich and a coffee? To listen on the other end of the phone while a depressed person rails on about the problems they see in their lives? To talk said depressed person off the ledge if the call comes through at 3am? To love one another, as Christ loved us? And to do it where no one can see you, where no one is filming you, where no one will applaud you, and where no one may thank you?
You see, we're using social media peer pressure to try to do positive things, but so many of them are one-and-done shows. And it is peer pressure - do it or be nagged and ridiculed by your friends for apparent cowardice! That part of it makes me want to dig in my heels right there, and you'd think I was shooting the sky except it's not my trigger finger you're seeing!
I guess my challenge would be to do something real for someone who really needs it. People with ALS don't need your wet head; researchers for the cure do need our dollars to make things happen. And the world as a whole needs more love, more peace, more laughter and more wholeness. Don't stop on my say-so - if you want to, be my guest! But the world needs more than that from you.