Then Think About It…
A very wonderful person, who happens to be one of my uncles, is doing a great thing for a special cause. I hope that you can help in many ways…
Dear friends,
Cancer does not rest. It doesn’t do a warm down at the end of a bicycle ride. Cancer doesn’t sleep at the end of the day. It doesn’t flee the cold for warm weather during school vacation. Cancer is relentless, showing no favorites and taking no prisoners. Wealthy or poor, educated or illiterate, young or old, it doesn’t discriminate. Cancer has no friends, no allies, no comrades. It doesn’t need any. It does its damage on its own. It is its own army. It is insidious, creeping into the lives of everyone, leaving a path of destruction and tragedy in its wake.
But out of tragedy can come inspiration. It can harvest acts, and deeds, and abilities beyond ones expectations. Last year the PMC raised $35 million with every last penny going to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Jimmy Fund. To learn more about the PMC please go to www.pmc.org.
On August 1 I will ride with 22 other folks who make up Team Emma Enchantment. The team is named for a seven year old girl who will be marking the 6th anniversary of her diagnosis of a brain tumor on June 30th of this year. Emma has endured surgery, chemo, and multiple therapies and has inspired many with her zest for life and spirited personality. Emma is in first grade and is currently off chemo waiting for resumption of treatment. 100% of the funds raised by the members of Team Emma’s Enchantment will be directed to the research of Dr. Mark Kieran. Dr. Kieran is a physician at DFCI who is currently working to unlock the mystery of low grade gliomas (the type of brain tumor Emma has). The ultimate goal of the study is to determine an agent that will destroy the slow growing cancer cells in these tumors rather than arrest them temporarily, which is the current course of treatment. If successful this would limit the number of rounds of chemo children faced with this rare type of tumor would be subjected to. It could mean an end to the very long run of chemo for Emma and allow her to have the life every six year old deserves.
By riding I am taking an active stand against cancer in an effort to improve one little girl’s life and hopefully impact the lives of many others in the process. I am writing you to ask for your support of my ride. The PMC is our avenue, our conduit, our means of empowering the army of doctors, nurses, clinicians, scientists, and support staff that are in our hospitals, laboratories, corridors, kitchens, and garages. These are the people on the front lines working tirelessly to make the dream of “no more cancer” a reality.
Please join us by making the PMC your avenue to making a difference in the fight against cancer. Yes, these economic times are difficult for us all but remember, cancer takes no rest, no vacation, needs no help, and is not slowed by the economy. You may send me a check made out to the Jimmy Fund/PMC or you can contribute online at:
http://www.pmc.org/egifts/JG0233
Please contribute generously and help us in our continuing efforts to help wipe cancer off the face of the earth. When you think of us on our bikes on August 1 your spirit will be with us.
I’d like to ask one more favor. It would be so wonderful if you would solicit a donation from one other friend or family member. Just think of how much more money we could raise in our effort to rid our lives of this horrible disease.
With love and appreciation
Joe
Not doing something to support cause, or doing to support cause; Which is more effective?
For instance, if the cause is people dying from the effects of pig waste (stay with me here, I will explain this one) than is NOT eating, therefore NOT doing something, eating pork in this instance, helping make a difference, or not really doing anything about the actual issue?
See what I am saying here? The idea of NOT doing (eating pork) is somewhat of a selfish act because you think you are helping. I am not sure that one person can make a difference in this case.
The pork industry still profits, still exists in the world you do not eat pork in. If you actually do something, perhaps start a brigade to get people to stop eating pork by extreme measures, than you are doing something, but in a singular sense I believe that one is NOT effective.
Who am i talking to? Anyone and everyone at once, regardless, does not matter your views.
There lies an issue and I question what any of us (including myself) are actually DOING to actually rid the world of it. Not slow it down, or stop it, but remove it entirely.
That issue I read about presented itself in a corporate magazine, Rolling Stone, in 2006 and I found myself talking and explaining it to some people as of recently.
38,000 people filled the streets of Grand Rapids today and last night when I finally went to sleep around 2AM (we were having a fire and s’mores gathering in the backyard) I said to Jeff (who stayed up until 4AM), ”You know, a 15.5 mile run is just to easy, I wish there was a way to be more difficult”.
Then I slept for four hours (lack of sleep does not effect running).
When I woke up @ 6AM it was pouring rain and what better way to get to my 25k run that I would be starting at 8:20AM than to walk one and a half miles there. In the rain. Jeff joined me.
Can you sense my sarcasm in various areas of this post?
I will spare the details and how the course got changed because of flooding and how I ate this goo they handed out, only because it was free, or how I love to eat the free food, and pace myself against brightly colored shirts.
After 2 hr. 13 minutes (finishing 1790 out of 17,000, some of whcih ran a 5k & 10k) I ate that free food and found Jeff’s family who were there cheering me on after two of his sisters had finished the 5k.
As Joel told me to say in response…”It Was Successful”
In an attempt to both lower my cell phone bill and rid my life of one thing I once lived fine without, I have decided to cancel my text messaging plan. If you text me, I will no longer receive it.
Please use other resources to send me funny photos, witty remarks and old inside jokes.
I love you all.
Please digg this post or email it in order to spread it around as a way to show the below companies that you refuse to accept their distorting our democracy and engangering us in the process.
On April 23, Andrew Revkin of the New York Times published a story proving conclusively that the so-called Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, knew that they were lying when they ran “an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to global warming.”
According to Revkin:
… a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.
“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied,” the experts wrote in an internal report compiled for the coalition in 1995.
A working democracy requires a correctly informed electorate. Deliberately lying to the public is a direct assault on the American system of democracy. To use power and money to lie to the American public is to distort our electoral process.
And to do it knowing what is at stake is just unfathomable. We are now at the point where we are near the climate tipping point. Without the efforts of the so-called Global Climate Coalition (GCC), and other organizations like it, we may have been able to get to work on this planetary problem a decade or even 20 years ago.
This is like a health insurance company refusing treatment to a child with cancer, except that we are talking about refusing treatment to billions of children–an entire planet’s worth. In the course of it’s work, according to SourceWatch, the GCC spent tens of millions of dollars on ad campaigns trying to stop action on global warming and made millions of dollars of contributions to politicians to influence their decisions.
The companies who exhibited this gross disregard for human life continue to wield power in the ongoing discussion about how to ameliorate the climate crisis. It is important to know, therefore, exactly which companies are prone to lie and distort the truth so we know not to believe them in the future.
For that reason, here, according to SourceWatch, is the list of members of the so-called Global Climate Coalition, who tried for so long to mislead us. I hope you’ll digg or stumble or email this post around to make sure it is seen and read and to show these companies that we won’t accept this kind of this behavior:
- Air Transport Association
- Allegheny Power
- Aluminum Association, Inc.
- American Automobile Manufacturers Association
- American Commercial Barge Line Co.
- American Farm Bureau Federation
- American Forest & Paper Association
- American Highway Users Alliance
- American Iron and Steel Institute
- American Petroleum Institute
- American Portland Cement Alliance
- Amoco
- Association of American Railroads
- Association of International Automobile Manufacturers
- Atlantic Richfield Coal Company
- Baker Refineries
- Bethlehem Steel
- BHP Minerals
- Chamber of Shipping of America
- Chemical Manufacturers Association
- Chevron
- Chrysler Corporation
- Cinergy
- CONRAIL
- Consumers Energy
- Council of Industrial Boiler Owners
- CSX Transportation, Inc.
- Cyprus-Amax
- Dow Chemical Company
- Drummond Company
- Duke Power Company
- DuPont
- Eastman Chemical
- Edison Electric Institute
- ELCON
- ExxonMobil
- Fertilizer Institute
- Ford Motor Company
- General Motors
- Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
- Greencool
- Hoechst Celanese Chemical Group
- Illinois Power Company
- Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp.
- McDonnell-Douglas
- Mobil Corporation
- National Association of Manufacturers
- National Lime Association
- National Mining Association
- National Ocean Industries Association
- National Petrochemical and Refiners Association
- Natural Rural Electric Cooperative Association
- Norfolk Southern
- Northern Indiana Public Serv. Co.
- Ohio Edison
- Parker Drilling Company
- Process Gas Consumers
- Shell
- Society of the Plastic Industry
- Southern Company
- Steel Manufacturers Association
- TECO Energy Inc.
- Texaco
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce
- USX Corporation
- Union Carbide
- Union Pacific
- Virginia Power
- Western Fuels Association
I am not sure if everyone knows this, but water in the United States is free (more or less anyways). There are water fountains and wonderful innovations that provide a small spout that shoots water through pipes and into these contraptions called sinks. And before the water hits the sink you can use a glass to catch it in. Sounds groundbreaking (no pun intended).
The reason I bring this up is that lately I have heard too much hoopla over bottled water and the negative effects it brings to the world. I just read a piece on-line about it, that motivated me to write something about it, basically because here in Grand Rapids, Michigan the latest hype is something called Boxed Water.
Brilliant idea from a marketing stand point, but shouldn’t we be fighting the idea of water consumption in anything that is not entirely re-usable and sustainable.
Sure drinking water from a box can be cool (look at me I am different, not really), but convenience is cooler. Water should not be a fad, or an accessory, why must it be made into one? Nalgene bottles (just one of many examples) can be purchased fairly on the cheap these days and it is not bold to sya one of those can last a lifetime, and fit in the water holder on your bike, or the caribbeaner loop on your pants. Boxes….Have fun riding with one hand.
Have we not learned anything from boxed wine!
Oh – check out this trailer too
“Looks like Chris is following these steps in Reverse”, Jordan explained. ”You see here, it says step 1 is throw away the T.V.”
That has already been done was my response to him, but for those of you who do not know Jordan, you might be wondering why he said that. You might be wondering who he is, or how I know him. You might be wondering what happened to me (pun intended) and if in my travels (still ongoing) I have been enlightened to new life experiences. My response to that would be “of course!” and I would add that Jordan is my new housemate and actual roommate. We share a room. He just moved in a week ago, roughly 3 1/2 weeks after I moved in.
Moved in…? Yes, the house is yellow. The house is four floors. The house is split for two families. The house is in Grand Rapids Michigan. The house provides me with some of many intentions I originally left New York City for (and also once moved to NYC for). There are others, intentions, and people, like Matt, but as Matt talks in the kitchen about moving to Alabama and I type about Jordan moving into the house, I sense a need to stay focused. One person at a time. Unnaturally and somewhat unintentionally I suppose I should start with me. For now.
When I arrived to Grand Rapids, MI I was somewhat quick to find things to fill my days. The one I will talk about right now is a job. I did not particularly want one, nor did I really think I needed one, but I went out and applied for some and a few days later I received one. People say the economy is bad, but I could argue many other things. So now I am LIVING and WORKING in Grand Rapids, MI. I am okay with it all, for now, although I cannot be too specific in this mass information highway about all my intentions and plans.
More Later…
This morning I read an article about how ancient microbes were discovered beneath an Anartic Glacier, one of which is likely breaking and melting away (not factual, but likely). Fun stuff, considering a whole ice age is upon us (in due time). However, I am not going to talk about my thoughts on what I think is an inevitable ice age, rather I wish to talk about human life, not the lack of.
This article I mentioned goes on to talk about how under the conditions presented to the bacteria it is both amazing and promising that they survived. Amazing because of the cold temperature and age, while promising to prove that there could be more life than suspected in colder areas of other planets.
The writer goes on to quote Ann Pearson, ”Organisms are highly adaptable to their environments. They are able to slow down as long as they get some energy,”. This specific statement stuck with me due in course to some recent thinking about adaptation. Not the movie, which coincidentally I once lied to people about seeing, in order to be involved in conversation. Not the point. Adaptation is a sole struggle that we all face. I am facing it, as others are, right now with technology.
I have always believed that in order to succeed in a business sense one must adapt to their surroundings. Meaning that true succession in today’s corporate world forces you to perhaps go against some things you would not have otherwise (some people would say this is “selling out” – I would agree). Doing something you do not want to do is not necessarily “paying dues”, some time it is “selling out”, other times it is adapting. Today ,as much as ever we hear the word, adaption; In regards to climate, to the earth, to space, to animals…You get the idea. So what to do, what to do…
Today’s culture of constant I find myself faced with a dilemma: Should I continue to adapt to the world around me, in this case, meaning continuing to fall victim to on-line technologies, all while trying to communicate with others in a more personal way, with word and actual type, rather than in disconnected speech (phone)?
Do I really want to continue posting my life online?
Do I choose, as I have which technologies to adapt to, leaving open the possibility for non-advancement because perhaps I choose not to participate with one of them?
Lets face it, we got through all our years without these things and even though they might sometimes make life easier, they make it unauthentic most of the time. They forge an urge of sameness and non-communal ways amongst mainly some non-committal relationships. They break us down and put us out there for the world to see. They read like words of ones life on a page of ones blog, that shows and tells like the third graders we all once were and for what?
I for one do not think we NEED to adapt to current culture. What we need is to start realizing that some things are not neccsary, stop the marketing and maybe even buy a newspaper sometimes. The economy is bad right now, but maybe that is a good thing. Less consumerism.
Why are my ideas still frantic and all over the place?
