Before I say thank you for your wonderful assistance, let me tell you how lessons about sharing and giving are coming at me non-stop.
It’s a long story but I’ll shorten it up.
I found myself moved today to help a homeless young woman, named Andi, who has fled a violent domestic situation in Edmonton (up North).
I saw her moving a large number of bags across the park outside my window.
I’m not moved to intervene in every situation I see, but I was strongly moved to intervene in this one.
So I ended up helping her move all her bags to the spot in the park she’d selected to move into. (She is the only homeless person in the park.)
And there followed a lot of give and receive all morning long. This with the mid-terms a day away, needing to be covered!
I cried when I returned home, seeing a young woman fleeing domestic violence, just like my Mom did in the early Sixties. Thereafter began our misery. I remember those days and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I know what it means to need to receive.
But then, here I turn around and hear that we have passed our minimum in our appeal to you. And before I thank you, let me not fail to point out that this must be how it works.
Isn’t it called the multiplier effect? Hank gives a $50 bill to Charlie and Charlie uses it to pay his grocery bill. The grocer takes from Charlie and gives it to the hotelier across the street to cover the grocer’s tab. The hotelier goes to the depot and buys supplies with that same $50 bill. How much was it worth? How much did it buy?
So our money goes round and round.
You also did not walk by a clear need for help and, as Michael would say, “for that I thank and bless you.” You have kept this boat afloat when for any number of reasons you could have chosen not to.
We are grateful, everyone, for your stalwart and kind support all these years.