Armchair activism…

Yesterday, I was back on the useful thing with a vengeance, so much so that I did about four useful things in one day! I know, I know, I’m so selfless. Four useful things in one day. Yes, that’s right. Four. I’ll be round to do autographs later. Let me tell you what they were.

Wear your heart on your wrist – order a bracelet from Doctors Without Borders
(The Difference A Day Makes by Karen M. Jones)

Let your mouse save a child – visit a website which creates sponsorship through advertiser donations
(The Difference A Day Makes by Karen M. Jones)

Meditate – to improve your mental wellbeing and your dedication to the other tasks in the book
(Going Greener by Simon Gear)

The thing with both of these books, and I knew I was going to have to confront this at some point, is that they are quite country-specific. Karen M. Jones is US-based and Simon Gear is in South Africa. Maybe, to give me a little more to do, I should look for a UK based one. Anyway, my first task was to look up Doctors Without Borders. Having the books on Kindle is great as the website addresses come up as links and I can just click on them – the laziest form of activism, yes I know. So when I clicked on the DWB link, it was an American website. I looked for the bracelet but needed a US address. I decided maybe a donation would be best. It was all in dollars and needed a zip code from me.

Then I saw a little button asking if I wanted to donate from outside America. Yes, please. Click! And I went to the UK site of Medicins Sans Frontieres. I hadn’t realised DWB was the US branch of MSF. I’ve always had good feelings about most of these ‘without borders’ organisations so got stuck into the website and found an easy way to donate by texting 70070 with the letters DOCS01 and an amount.

Easy! I’d like to think that I will train as a doctor and go out and save small children from terrible diseases but the truth is I probably won’t. There are people who have done it and are good at it. So for now, until I complete my degree in medicine with flying colours (any minute now), the best way I can help is by funding their work.

One quick text later and I was all done. First box ticked!

Second one. I was told to visit thechildhealthsite.com and click on things a bit. The sponsors who have adverts on the site will give money to different projects and charities that support healthcare for children. In the tabs at the top there are all different causes you can help simply by clicking. So I got a little click-crazy. I clicked to help the rainforests, improve literacy and stop hunger.

I’m steadily starting to understand the phrase ‘armchair activist.’

Lastly, I was advised by Simon Gear to take twenty minutes each day to meditate, without which, my dedication to my world-saving cause might suffer. So, thought I, I will do this. I will meditate my way to heroicism.

I made sure I was sitting comfortably. I set an alarm for twenty minutes away as checking the clock might disturb my deep and meaningful meditation session.

I closed my eyes… And cleared my thoughts out…. Sort of. A few crept in. I made a mental shopping list to ensure I wouldn’t forget anything. I worked out how many hours there were until I needed to be in work. I wondered if the rain would stop so I could go for a walk. Then I cleared my mind and tried again.

This time was more successful. I enjoyed this second attempt at meditation, although some people (not me), might say that that’s because it strongly resembled what most consider ‘sleeping.’ I was startled awake by the alarm… I mean, I was already awake.

I think meditation is something I’ll need to work on.

And the fourth thing, what about the fourth thing, you’re all wondering.

Well, I went shopping and bought environmentally friendly softener for washing my clothes. I also didn’t wrap my vegetables in plastic bags. I just weighed them and stuck the sticker straight on. Check me out, I’m such a rebel.

Here endeth the world saving for another day.

You clap. I bow.

I once dated a man who’s name I didn’t know

True story.

It happened about five years ago. I saw him every day when I was at work and thought he was utterly beautiful. When I was at work I had a name badge on.

For about a year, I smiled and tried to start conversations. For a year, he smiled politely but didn’t respond. Then one day I went to get some photos developed and he was standing there in the shop! Thankfully, the photos were of friends and I at a party so I looked presentable enough.

When I went to pick them up, he finally responded to my advances and chatted a little. The chatting developed over the next few months until he finally asked me to go for a drink. He’d been saying my name when talking to me for quite a while by this point. Obviously, having a name badge on made it easy for him. But by the time we were going for a drink, I realised I didn’t know his name and we had been flantering (flirty bantering) for too long for me to now ask him.

When he gave me his number he just wrote it on a peice of paper, without his name. Before our date, I tried going online to the website of the shop where he worked but there was nothing about staff names. And so I went for a drink with a man who’s name I did not know.

When the man gave me a gentle kiss goodnight at the bus stop, I still did not know his name. When I saved his phone number under ‘Man,’ I still did not know his name. When we text back and forth to arrange a second date (which we did not end up going on), I still did not know his name.

When he disappeared off the radar altogether for a year or so, then showed up back at my work needing someone to talk to and saying he’d been married and divorced in the past year and struggled with alcoholism, I still did not know his name.

When he cried a little so I took him somewhere quiet to sit and gave him a hug, I still did not know his name.

When he asked me what he needed to say to prove he was still interested (I, unfortunately, no longer was), I still did not know his name.

And now, while I’m remembering how odd that all was, I still do not know his name!