Perhaps naively, I thought that my decision to donate my $200 gift card from Oakridge Centre would’ve made a few more waves than with the feeble tiny ripple I sent out.
Facebook event page: 65 invitations sent out.
5 attending.
3 actually attended, including me (from the list of people on the event page).
Perhaps this has something to do with my unpopular theory (why do I feel like if Ryan Clayton created the same event and sent out invitations to his friends that at least a hundred people would respond?). In any case, it turned out to be a small operation of super fantastic people who were willing to lend their hands to help out for a good cause.
Perhaps naively again, I imagined myself in front of TV cameras, explaining to reporters about how I came to the decision to donate my money to a non-profit organization than buying some new clothes at the Bay. Since that didn’t actually happen, I’ll put up my responses here instead, to make me feel like what I imagined wasn’t a waste of time, and that what I think does in fact matter. 🙂
Though I’ve had the gift card for several months now, I didn’t know what to do with it for the longest time. I thought of buying myself clothes or even buying a cable to connect my computer to my television at The Source and if a cable had indeed existed that could do that, I would’ve bought it. But instead, I found myself strangely disturbed at the fact that I wanted shiny new things when other people didn’t even have the basics — food, shelter, support. What kind of person would I be if I went out and knowing that there were less fortunate people out there, proceed to splurge it on myself? I just couldn’t do it.
I attribute the strange feeling to English Literature class. At the time, we had been learning about Gulliver’s Travels — not the probably lame Jack Black version, but the real, satirical one — and talking about Swift’s many jabs at humanity. In fact, I even wrote an entire essay about how I thought humanity was not worth saving (which I got an A on). Most if not all people during Swift’s time weren’t aware of the problems in society; homelessness, corruption in government, exploitation. But with the publication of Gulliver’s Travels, and then later with Romantic poets like William Blake, people knew. Only now, they still didn’t do anything. True ignorance.
And that’s the hardest part. Making people care.
Do I still believe humanity is beyond saving? Proabably.
But there are the few of us who aim to prove otherwise. I try to be one of those people.
Even if it is a mere $200 at a time. At an overpriced shopping mall nonetheless.
aaron's random musings 