My Christmas 2005 Wish List

posted at 1:44 am
on Dec. 10, 2005

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If you’re like me and you have *cough* almost finished *cough* your Christmas shopping but haven’t found that thing for me yet, not to worry. My list this year is brief as always.

I have enough things right now, and I’m able to feel quite Christmas-y without accumulating more. I’d much prefer that you simply make a donation to a charity of your choice. Send me a note to me telling me to whom and presto, you’re done!

My own personal charity favorites are as follows:

American Diabetes Association. My Dad has diabetes.  I haven’t talked with him for over a year, but I still love him, and hope to reconcile with him.  If diabetes gets him, I won’t have that chance.  So it’s kinda selfish, but hey, if they cure diabetes everyone wins, right?

Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF is a nonprofit group working to protect digital rights.  It’s doing good work to reform copyright and control the effects of DRM.  For a lot of the online work I do, the EFF is on the side I’m on.  Who knows—they might bail me out some day.

Vancouver Feline Hospital.  Not technically a charity, but I think it’s a wonderful place to be able to take a cat, and the vet there, Dr. Nicky Joosting, has been especially compassionate when treating Lukaska, and in keeping Aimee healthy.

Here’s a personal “charity” I support—I have a friend name Solveig who lives in Montana. Solveig is a sweet, cheerful, always laughing, special kind of person who’s one of those people you meet once and remember forever.  She also has Cystic Fibrosis.  She’s a single mom and she’s raising a wonderful little girl, but her medical condition makes it hard for her to work—she’s a little weaker than most of us, and she also has to spend a lot of time (and money!) in doctor’s offices and doing special exercises to keep her lungs clear enough to breathe.  Solveig’s incredibly brave but has been dealt a very different hand, and I like to help her out, especially at this time of year.  If you’d like to help her out this holiday, contact Susie and she’ll send you details on how you can make a real difference in Solveig’s life.

Oh, I almost forgot: Alzheimer Society of Canada. (Hey, if you can’t joke about it…) Again, this is a disease that’s affected many people I know: a family member, a good neighbour, an just recently an old family friend. It’s a disease that’s especially cruel because of the way it hurts those around the afflicted.  The deep irony is that not only does it rob one person of memory, it robs those around them of good memories as well, because of the long duration and wasting effects it has.  Ultimately, i’ve found it becomes harder and harder to remember the person as they were in their health, and that’s the biggest tragedy of all.

So, that’s my list.  Feel free to substitute your own charity—these are suggestions, not absolutes.

I have been told that it’s hard to give me a donation “instead of a real gift”—but for me, these donations are real gifts, treasured and appreciated more than any material possession.  But I realize it’s not very “21st century” of me, and if you just gotta give me something else, please make it something intangible and consumable, like a restaurant gift certificate, a batch of cookies or movie tickets.  Or just invite me over for dinner—that’s a great gift in and of itself.  And above all, have a happy holiday.

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Keywords: charity  •  christmas  •  donation  •  gift  •  giving  •  list  •  wish

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My Sister, the Paramedic