Inspiration
- sockpuppet
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- Posts: 4825
- Joined: Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:27 am
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Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:40 pm » by sockpuppet
I've has the idea for a while of starting a thread where members could drop in stories about good things that are happening with themselves and in the world. Too often all we hear about is the negative because that is all that we are allowed to see by the networks run by tptb. I do not believe that everything is going to hell in a hand basket, in spite of what we are exposed to everyday. I also do not believe that in order to change things we all have to be heroes. How many times have we heard it's the small things that count? But how often do we actually see that happen? And how many times do we not do that one little thing, because we think it won't do any good? Like that bumper sticker, "Create a Miracle!"
So... who wants to start?
So... who wants to start?
Last edited by sockpuppet on Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Skype: nnboogies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouyVS6HOFeo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouyVS6HOFeo
- Fossileyesed
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- Posts: 2594
- Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:56 am
Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:44 pm » by Fossileyesed
grandson in a busy store
mom,why does that lady a different colour
oh,people have different coloured skin,just like hair and eyes
oh
i like her colour
mom,why does that lady a different colour
oh,people have different coloured skin,just like hair and eyes
oh
i like her colour
metaphors be with you
peace,love and harmony
peace,love and harmony
- sockpuppet
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- Posts: 4825
- Joined: Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:27 am
Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:50 pm » by sockpuppet
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100317/ap_ ... volunteers
FARGO, N.D. – Some children lugged sandbags that weighed more than they did. Determined teens showed up just after dawn with groups of friends, ready and willing to shovel. New groups of kids arrived by the busloads, all ready to join the race to protect their city from the rising Red River.
Thousands of volunteers are lending a hand this week to fill and stack sandbags to place along the river and near endangered homes as Fargo faces the threat of a severe flood after the river's expected crest Sunday. But the heart of that volunteer corps are the city's youngest citizens.
It's a job that elsewhere might be reserved for emergency workers or at least, their parents. But here, students can be excused from class with their parents' permission and join the hundreds of adults, local workers and others who are taking on the task of filling 1 million sandbags to hold back the impending floodwaters.
"They pretty much have saved our community," said David Stark, 62, who worked beside hundreds of student volunteers. One of the few seniors to join the effort, he had to take a break after hurting his hand and was in awe of the students' dedication.
Many of the volunteers know what they're doing may help save a neighbor or friend. Michael Russell, 14, didn't mind missing a day of school to get dirty filling sandbags. He guessed many would end up near his own home or his friends' homes.
"I think I'm helping the city and my friends," he said.
Jaclynn Powers, 18, a student at Fargo North High School, said Wednesday that she was sore from her second straight day of filling bags, but didn't want to miss the action.
"I went to school for a couple hours yesterday and there was like four kids in each class," Powers said. "I feel it's more important right now to help out the community."
The students are providing critical manpower when their community needs it most. Since March 1, volunteers have been bused in to Fargo's "Sandbag Central," an arena-size utility building normally used to house a fleet of 25 garbage trucks, said Terry Ludlum, the city's solid waste utility manager. There, with the help of machines and volunteers, up to 100,000 sandbags can be filled in a 12-hour shift. Fifty volunteers can fill about 1,000 sandbags an hour.
The volunteers are expected to meet their goal Wednesday afternoon, three days ahead of schedule and largely because of the help of the young students, Ludlum said. More than 1,000 children and teens have participated in the effort.
"We certainly would not be this far along without the help of these kids," Ludlum said.
Student volunteers are a critical part of Fargo's flood response plan, and without them, the city would be sunk. College students helped with the sandbagging effort last year when the region lived through record flooding, but this year, they are on spring break. To fill the gap, hundreds of middle school and high school students have been enlisted to work three- to four-hour shifts for 12 hours each day.
Some children are in grade school, or not even old enough to enroll.
Tina Gianakos brought her three sons to help out. Three-year-old Carsen Gianakos brought his own plastic shovel, and kept pace with brothers Bradley, 8, and Adam, 11.
"We're helping save people's houses so the little kids don't drown," Bradley said.
Carsen was lugging a 35-pound sandbag to a pallet for loading, something that impressed Tom Kempel, a city employee who was overseeing the effort.
"That sandbag is as big as he is, probably bigger," Kempel said. "He feels like he's part of the effort, and he is."
Carsen put down his toy shovel only long enough to take an occasional slide down a sand pile, or to watch heavy machinery that hauled the sandbags away.
"Wow!" he said, pointing to a bucket-loader that chewed into 10-foot-high piles of sand.
Ciera Watkin, a 17-year-old high school senior, said the sandbagging was hard work. Watkin and her friend, 17-year-old Alysa Lerud, were exhausted after pulling a nearly five-hour shift on Tuesday.
"This is hard and my back hurts from shoveling and everything," Watkin said. "But I'll come back."
Chase Martin, 13, said it was easy work.
"They asked our school to help so we are," Martin said. "It feels good because there are a lot of houses out there that could be flooding without the help."
FARGO, N.D. – Some children lugged sandbags that weighed more than they did. Determined teens showed up just after dawn with groups of friends, ready and willing to shovel. New groups of kids arrived by the busloads, all ready to join the race to protect their city from the rising Red River.
Thousands of volunteers are lending a hand this week to fill and stack sandbags to place along the river and near endangered homes as Fargo faces the threat of a severe flood after the river's expected crest Sunday. But the heart of that volunteer corps are the city's youngest citizens.
It's a job that elsewhere might be reserved for emergency workers or at least, their parents. But here, students can be excused from class with their parents' permission and join the hundreds of adults, local workers and others who are taking on the task of filling 1 million sandbags to hold back the impending floodwaters.
"They pretty much have saved our community," said David Stark, 62, who worked beside hundreds of student volunteers. One of the few seniors to join the effort, he had to take a break after hurting his hand and was in awe of the students' dedication.
Many of the volunteers know what they're doing may help save a neighbor or friend. Michael Russell, 14, didn't mind missing a day of school to get dirty filling sandbags. He guessed many would end up near his own home or his friends' homes.
"I think I'm helping the city and my friends," he said.
Jaclynn Powers, 18, a student at Fargo North High School, said Wednesday that she was sore from her second straight day of filling bags, but didn't want to miss the action.
"I went to school for a couple hours yesterday and there was like four kids in each class," Powers said. "I feel it's more important right now to help out the community."
The students are providing critical manpower when their community needs it most. Since March 1, volunteers have been bused in to Fargo's "Sandbag Central," an arena-size utility building normally used to house a fleet of 25 garbage trucks, said Terry Ludlum, the city's solid waste utility manager. There, with the help of machines and volunteers, up to 100,000 sandbags can be filled in a 12-hour shift. Fifty volunteers can fill about 1,000 sandbags an hour.
The volunteers are expected to meet their goal Wednesday afternoon, three days ahead of schedule and largely because of the help of the young students, Ludlum said. More than 1,000 children and teens have participated in the effort.
"We certainly would not be this far along without the help of these kids," Ludlum said.
Student volunteers are a critical part of Fargo's flood response plan, and without them, the city would be sunk. College students helped with the sandbagging effort last year when the region lived through record flooding, but this year, they are on spring break. To fill the gap, hundreds of middle school and high school students have been enlisted to work three- to four-hour shifts for 12 hours each day.
Some children are in grade school, or not even old enough to enroll.
Tina Gianakos brought her three sons to help out. Three-year-old Carsen Gianakos brought his own plastic shovel, and kept pace with brothers Bradley, 8, and Adam, 11.
"We're helping save people's houses so the little kids don't drown," Bradley said.
Carsen was lugging a 35-pound sandbag to a pallet for loading, something that impressed Tom Kempel, a city employee who was overseeing the effort.
"That sandbag is as big as he is, probably bigger," Kempel said. "He feels like he's part of the effort, and he is."
Carsen put down his toy shovel only long enough to take an occasional slide down a sand pile, or to watch heavy machinery that hauled the sandbags away.
"Wow!" he said, pointing to a bucket-loader that chewed into 10-foot-high piles of sand.
Ciera Watkin, a 17-year-old high school senior, said the sandbagging was hard work. Watkin and her friend, 17-year-old Alysa Lerud, were exhausted after pulling a nearly five-hour shift on Tuesday.
"This is hard and my back hurts from shoveling and everything," Watkin said. "But I'll come back."
Chase Martin, 13, said it was easy work.
"They asked our school to help so we are," Martin said. "It feels good because there are a lot of houses out there that could be flooding without the help."
Skype: nnboogies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouyVS6HOFeo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouyVS6HOFeo
- sockpuppet
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- Posts: 4825
- Joined: Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:27 am
Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:09 am » by sockpuppet
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 1.html?g=0
The guy behind the meat counter is looking at Reed Sandridge kind of strangely. Giving away $10 every day to a stranger -- an idea Sandridge had soon after he was laid off from his job at a Washington nonprofit group last fall -- isn't as easy as it sounds.
Carlos Canales, a 28-year-old butcher at Eastern Market, is hesitant to take the money. "What do I have to do?" he asks.
No strings, no hook. Sandridge, 36, a businessman-turned-shoe-leather philanthropist, just wants to help. His mom, the daughter of a coal miner whom he remembers most for her kindness, always told him that when you're going through tough times, that's when you most need to give back.
So not long after he was laid off, on the third anniversary of his mom's death, he started his "year of giving," documenting each $10 gift in a small black notebook and then blogging about the people he meets. By Day 94, he had given away almost $1,000, handing out money in blizzards, in rainstorms, on the sunniest of days. He gave $10 to a guy playing the trumpet outside Verizon Center, the president of a brewery, someone dressed up as the Statue of Liberty, a hard-drinking PhD, a man who held up a basketball to block helicopters overhead from eavesdropping on their conversation, the curator of a small museum and a whole lot of homeless people.
Sandridge, who is outgoing and has a ready grin, and, sometimes, a brown scruff of almost-beard, knows $10 is precious little, even to the most down-and-out. It feels significant only when the daily donations are subtracted from his shrinking bank account. He's been using his savings and a few hundred a week in unemployment benefits to pay the mortgage on his home in Dupont Circle. But he hopes he will network his way to a salary again long before he runs out of cash.
A learning curve
But the year of giving is not about the money. Sandridge is trying to spread an idea. Doing nice things all the time is addictive, he said.
Besides, he added, "being unemployed, I was starting to go nuts."
He wanders the city looking for strangers who appear as if they might need help or have an interesting story to tell. He has a few rules: He gives only $10, and he doesn't take anything in exchange.
He's getting better at it. The first three times he tried, people refused, suspicious, and walked away. Now, he easily persuades people to take his money -- even Canales, after a few moments, accepts the $10 bill -- and to tell him what they're going to do with the unexpected gift.
Every once in a while, he knows the money really helps someone. It pays for a meal or turns someone's lousy day into one that feels lucky.
On his fifth day, in the middle of a fierce snowstorm, he met Davie McInally, a Scottish man with icicles frozen in his thick beard who was carrying his belongings in a backpack and trying to get to New York to enlist in the military. McInally hoped to serve on active duty and earn his citizenship, and the $10, added to his $14, made a bus ticket possible.
"I am sure there have been quite a few people now that those 10 dollars have really helped, or made their life or even their days a lot better," McInally wrote in an e-mail.
The generosity comes naturally to Sandridge, who grew up in a close family in a small Pennsylvania town.
He studied international business and Spanish at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, worked for a Finnish telecommunications software company, for which he started a subsidiary in Brazil (sleeping in his office sometimes because he was working so much), returned to the United States to oversee its Americas operations, and then joined the management team of a health nonprofit founded by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation.
Sandridge tells people that he doesn't care what they do with his money. But that's not exactly true. When someone who is jobless and has alcohol on his breath says he'll buy a drink, Sandridge doesn't regret the gift but hopes the next $10 has a better impact than just another buzz.
His favorites are those (more than 30) who say they'll use the money to help someone else: He likes to see the $10 snowball. A woman went to a homeless shelter the night after she met Sandridge and found someone who could use the gift. A Haitian man who had just learned that his mother had died in the earthquake told Sandridge that he was going to the island to look for other relatives and would put the money toward bringing satellite phones there.
Ideas to help others
On his Web site, Sandridge keeps a list of ideas for helping those he has met: Ron, who has experience with heavy machinery, wants day-labor work. Nikki needs help with filing disability claims. Garland, a street drummer, wants gigs. Anthony needs a pair of size 9 sneakers.
Sometimes, someone following the blog, another stranger, will step in to help.
"He forces attention to people who are usually ignored," said his brother Ryan Sandridge. "I hope others maybe slow their life down just a little bit and see that there's more than just the daily grind. I don't know if that's part of his message or not -- but that's one of the things I take out of it. Look around, pay more attention, be more giving."
Canales takes the money, talks to Sandridge some in Spanish and introduces him to his father, Emilio Canales. Carlos tells him that when he was a little boy, he would sleep under the tables behind the meat counter while his father and uncles set up their stands early in the morning. He's not sure what to do with the $10. Maybe the next time someone asks him for food, he will give it to that person.
"I'll pass it along," Canales said.
Sandridge has already started to think about Dec. 16, when the year is over. "It's going to be a letdown," he said.
So he's planning a party for all the people who got his money and all the people who read his blog as he gave it away.
Sometimes people ask him: Why not give all the money away at once?
He didn't want to write a check to an organization -- he wanted something more personal. "But I get their point," Sandridge said. "If I gave $3,650 to one person, I could probably change their life.
ad_icon
"Maybe I'll do that next year!" Then he laughed. "I'll need a good job, first."
The guy behind the meat counter is looking at Reed Sandridge kind of strangely. Giving away $10 every day to a stranger -- an idea Sandridge had soon after he was laid off from his job at a Washington nonprofit group last fall -- isn't as easy as it sounds.
Carlos Canales, a 28-year-old butcher at Eastern Market, is hesitant to take the money. "What do I have to do?" he asks.
No strings, no hook. Sandridge, 36, a businessman-turned-shoe-leather philanthropist, just wants to help. His mom, the daughter of a coal miner whom he remembers most for her kindness, always told him that when you're going through tough times, that's when you most need to give back.
So not long after he was laid off, on the third anniversary of his mom's death, he started his "year of giving," documenting each $10 gift in a small black notebook and then blogging about the people he meets. By Day 94, he had given away almost $1,000, handing out money in blizzards, in rainstorms, on the sunniest of days. He gave $10 to a guy playing the trumpet outside Verizon Center, the president of a brewery, someone dressed up as the Statue of Liberty, a hard-drinking PhD, a man who held up a basketball to block helicopters overhead from eavesdropping on their conversation, the curator of a small museum and a whole lot of homeless people.
Sandridge, who is outgoing and has a ready grin, and, sometimes, a brown scruff of almost-beard, knows $10 is precious little, even to the most down-and-out. It feels significant only when the daily donations are subtracted from his shrinking bank account. He's been using his savings and a few hundred a week in unemployment benefits to pay the mortgage on his home in Dupont Circle. But he hopes he will network his way to a salary again long before he runs out of cash.
A learning curve
But the year of giving is not about the money. Sandridge is trying to spread an idea. Doing nice things all the time is addictive, he said.
Besides, he added, "being unemployed, I was starting to go nuts."
He wanders the city looking for strangers who appear as if they might need help or have an interesting story to tell. He has a few rules: He gives only $10, and he doesn't take anything in exchange.
He's getting better at it. The first three times he tried, people refused, suspicious, and walked away. Now, he easily persuades people to take his money -- even Canales, after a few moments, accepts the $10 bill -- and to tell him what they're going to do with the unexpected gift.
Every once in a while, he knows the money really helps someone. It pays for a meal or turns someone's lousy day into one that feels lucky.
On his fifth day, in the middle of a fierce snowstorm, he met Davie McInally, a Scottish man with icicles frozen in his thick beard who was carrying his belongings in a backpack and trying to get to New York to enlist in the military. McInally hoped to serve on active duty and earn his citizenship, and the $10, added to his $14, made a bus ticket possible.
"I am sure there have been quite a few people now that those 10 dollars have really helped, or made their life or even their days a lot better," McInally wrote in an e-mail.
The generosity comes naturally to Sandridge, who grew up in a close family in a small Pennsylvania town.
He studied international business and Spanish at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, worked for a Finnish telecommunications software company, for which he started a subsidiary in Brazil (sleeping in his office sometimes because he was working so much), returned to the United States to oversee its Americas operations, and then joined the management team of a health nonprofit founded by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation.
Sandridge tells people that he doesn't care what they do with his money. But that's not exactly true. When someone who is jobless and has alcohol on his breath says he'll buy a drink, Sandridge doesn't regret the gift but hopes the next $10 has a better impact than just another buzz.
His favorites are those (more than 30) who say they'll use the money to help someone else: He likes to see the $10 snowball. A woman went to a homeless shelter the night after she met Sandridge and found someone who could use the gift. A Haitian man who had just learned that his mother had died in the earthquake told Sandridge that he was going to the island to look for other relatives and would put the money toward bringing satellite phones there.
Ideas to help others
On his Web site, Sandridge keeps a list of ideas for helping those he has met: Ron, who has experience with heavy machinery, wants day-labor work. Nikki needs help with filing disability claims. Garland, a street drummer, wants gigs. Anthony needs a pair of size 9 sneakers.
Sometimes, someone following the blog, another stranger, will step in to help.
"He forces attention to people who are usually ignored," said his brother Ryan Sandridge. "I hope others maybe slow their life down just a little bit and see that there's more than just the daily grind. I don't know if that's part of his message or not -- but that's one of the things I take out of it. Look around, pay more attention, be more giving."
Canales takes the money, talks to Sandridge some in Spanish and introduces him to his father, Emilio Canales. Carlos tells him that when he was a little boy, he would sleep under the tables behind the meat counter while his father and uncles set up their stands early in the morning. He's not sure what to do with the $10. Maybe the next time someone asks him for food, he will give it to that person.
"I'll pass it along," Canales said.
Sandridge has already started to think about Dec. 16, when the year is over. "It's going to be a letdown," he said.
So he's planning a party for all the people who got his money and all the people who read his blog as he gave it away.
Sometimes people ask him: Why not give all the money away at once?
He didn't want to write a check to an organization -- he wanted something more personal. "But I get their point," Sandridge said. "If I gave $3,650 to one person, I could probably change their life.
ad_icon
"Maybe I'll do that next year!" Then he laughed. "I'll need a good job, first."
Skype: nnboogies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouyVS6HOFeo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouyVS6HOFeo
- Lucidlemondrop
-
- Posts: 7529
- Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 7:37 am
Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:21 am » by Lucidlemondrop
Sorry I'm not bringing anything to the table right now besides a thumbs up, but I'm about to crash.
I think it is an excellent idea.
Reminds me of the quote "If your not part of the solution you are part of the problem"
Another thing I read once in a nutshell....
Spend 5% of your time on the problem and 95% toward a solution and you will be much more effective.
Good to take the initiative to bring it up.
I think it is an excellent idea.
Reminds me of the quote "If your not part of the solution you are part of the problem"
Another thing I read once in a nutshell....
Spend 5% of your time on the problem and 95% toward a solution and you will be much more effective.
Good to take the initiative to bring it up.
Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:22 am » by dlslith
Yeah, I am bagged too, But this is something I will definitely look into tomorrow. Being inspired by stories is an awesome thing. Gang, I think most of us are all bagging out. Time zone stuff et al. Hold down the fort and give us good inspiration to look to in the morn.
Peace all,
Slith
Peace all,
Slith
- Fossileyesed
-
- Posts: 2594
- Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:56 am
Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:45 am » by Fossileyesed
the power of thoughts
the echo of words
from eyes that have seen
from ears that have heard
the power of love
the echo of thoughts
from nothing thats something
to something thats not
illusions of magic
in a fabric deceit
where dreams speak in voices
where angels do meet
love lays bleeding
alas just a lie
for love is the wind
of how angels fly
seemed love was the answer
but the mind had been tricked
languages forgotten
delusions of magic
the magicians sold vanity
oh,and such a crafty art
who would hear the angels
who would listen with their heart
alas came a man
filled with amazment and wonder
he knew god surrounded everything
ever he could ponder
he felt no despair
he could banish his fear
by using his eyes
by using his ears
anonymous
the echo of words
from eyes that have seen
from ears that have heard
the power of love
the echo of thoughts
from nothing thats something
to something thats not
illusions of magic
in a fabric deceit
where dreams speak in voices
where angels do meet
love lays bleeding
alas just a lie
for love is the wind
of how angels fly
seemed love was the answer
but the mind had been tricked
languages forgotten
delusions of magic
the magicians sold vanity
oh,and such a crafty art
who would hear the angels
who would listen with their heart
alas came a man
filled with amazment and wonder
he knew god surrounded everything
ever he could ponder
he felt no despair
he could banish his fear
by using his eyes
by using his ears
anonymous
metaphors be with you
peace,love and harmony
peace,love and harmony
Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:59 am » by dlslith
fossileyesed wrote:the power of thoughts
the echo of words
from eyes that have seen
from ears that have heard
the power of love
the echo of thoughts
from nothing thats something
to something thats not
illusions of magic
in a fabric deceit
where dreams speak in voices
where angels do meet
love lays bleeding
alas just a lie
for love is the wind
of how angels fly
seemed love was the answer
but the mind had been tricked
languages forgotten
delusions of magic
the magicians sold vanity
oh,and such a crafty art
who would hear the angels
who would listen with their heart
alas came a man
filled with amazment and wonder
he knew god surrounded everything
ever he could ponder
he felt no despair
he could banish his fear
by using his eyes
by using his ears
anonymous
K ,now that is awesome
Great post!
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