Gold Star Thursday!

I don't know if this is going to be a recurring theme or not - we'll have to see if people really earn a gold star. I was thinking about the great healthcare debate that has taken over the country last night and tried very hard to boil it down to its core. Here's what I came to before exhaustion finally took me away.


The healthcare system is in a hurt because A) we are unhealthy people who don't even try to take care of ourselves until we are already sick. In other words, we are lazy and selfish. We eat and do what we want to because we want to. And B) because some doctors, clinics, hospitals and insurance companies only care about the bottom line and making it as big as possible. Please don't start the "doctors have student loans and have studied long and hard" argument. I understand that and I believe that they should be compensated. I just know that there are some out there who think they are entitled to more than is actually fair.


But at the bottom of both of those reasons sits the same root. Selfishness and Greed. I'm not resolving the healthcare issue today. As most of you know my brain grabs random ideas from time to time and takes me on a tangent completely unrelated. Well, the selfishness and greed grabbed me.


Then I read through some of the headlines online this morning. This story popped out to me.


Fashion-forward Miamian helps homeless land jobs


Here is a Product Director for Johnson & Johnson - a normal every day guy by most standards - who is taking money out of his own pocket to help homeless people change their lives. For the better.


Maybe he makes more money than us. Maybe he doesn't. The point is that he saw a need and stepped out of his comfort zone to fill it. He did something for someone else. And not just his next door neighbor who needed his grass mowed. He did something for an "undesirable." Someone who was probably passed by a million times a day in Miami.


I had no idea who Frank Kelly was. And don't Google him. You'll hear about a 50 year old man who was arrested for DWI in North Carolina. This is Frank. He's a motivational speaker who puts his money where his lessons are.


Is Frank going to cure the ills of the world? No. If we act like Frank are we going to cure the ills? No. Does that mean we shouldn't try? No.


Gold Star today for Frank. Gold Star to you if you take even two minutes today to step out of your comfort zone to help someone else. You may not radically change someone's life but you may make an impression that causes them to pass it on.

A Letter to Karma

Dear Karma,

I sincerely apologize for my gaseous outburst just a mere hour or two ago. Thank you for rewarding my consideration for others. It was very generous of you to send information to Beloved just as I published my rant.

Please be lenient with The Tie. Do not treat him like the stressed out mother of three with raging PMS (or other appropriate cuss words) that we know you can be. A little pop on the hand or butt probably would not do him a disservice but I leave that entirely to your discretion.

Again, I thank you sincerely for overlooking my rage and for allowing the lines to be short and the pumps to be fast. I'm sure it did not escape your attention that in spite of my state of mind over The Tie I did not fill up or take more than my fair share. I did double up over last trip though because enduring this stress week after week will significantly shorten my life span. I would not want to deprive you of any opportunity you may get in the coming days, weeks and years to teach me more lessons.

Thank you again for your tolerance.

Sincerely,
A Gassed up Friend

I Tried to Avoid it.

I tried very hard not to vent about the gas situation here in Metro Atlanta. I really did. I mean it's been ugly for over a month now and I am just getting to losing my mind so I think I did really well. But now I have had it.

For those of you who have been under a rock, the metro area is out of gas. No not low. Not suffering from incredibly high prices. No we're out. As is none. As in little baggies on all the pumps for a 50 mile radius (possible larger but I was afraid if I did anymore research I would be left). "Why?" you ask?

Because Ike knocked out some refineries. I understand that. But we weren't in this situation during all the chaos of Katrina. We weren't in this situation even when 9/11 happened and everyone panicked. So why are we in this situation now? No really! I'm asking why?

And as if being out isn't enough. When stations DO get shipments, folks pull stunts like I witnessed this morning. There was a line over a mile long which I had waited in for over 30 minutes with The Boy and Munch in the van. I watched a man fill up his SUV AND 5 2 gallon jugs. Now tell me. Why is a man driving and SUV and wearing a tie filling extra cans? Is he a landscaper? Is his wife's car low? I don't know and I really tried very hard not to judge him.

Until the pumps ran out just as I swiped my card to get a measly $15 bucks. Did the Tie really need to FILL UP? Did he really need those extra 10 gallons which would have done me for 2 weeks?

There's my real problem with this whole situation. If you are a commuter I understand, but are you carpooling at all? Have you looked at MARTA (our measley mass transit) if you work down town? Can you make do with less so that everyone can have some? I don't go anywhere so when I can find it I'm not filling up. I'm putting in enough to get me around for a week or two and then I'm going again.

Is this my own fault? Should I stop watching out for everyone and start being selfish like the rest of the world? Maybe. In the meantime I get to pray over my tank everytime I go out to pick Mo up from school (and yes, I should probably put her on the bus but she's only 5!) and subject my two little ones to morning gas raids until we can get anything.

And by the way if you live in a neighboring state that has plenty, could you talk to your lawmakers about sending us some relief? We would appreciate it!