GFF-Doing What You Can

Four stories touched me this week as being genuine examples of Good Folks doing Good Stuff.

The first story is pretty awesome because of the technology and coordination that is required to make it all happen.

Marathon 18-Patient Kidney Swap Saves Nine People

Imagine someone you know and love needs a kidney.  You want to give them yours.  Unfortunately its not a match.  Some other family is in the same predicament.  They have a family member that's willing to give up a kidney but they aren't a match either.  Here's the cool part, they are a match for someone else and you are a match for someone and so on.  The way the deal works is everyone's family trades a good kidney to someone who needs it and in exchange gets a new kidney for there loved one.

Jack Andraka was a normal 15 year old kid, who wanted to find an early detection tool for pancreatic cancer.  He had a friend who died of it and he wanted to do something to help detect and treat the disease sooner.  He had a great idea and is working hard to see if that idea can become a life saving tool.  Not bad for a kid who just turned 18 this year.

Our third story this week involves a unique situation, and a degree of character.

Homeless Man Reunited w/ Inheritance Thanks to Good Samaritan and Police

A homeless man comes into some cash and loses not one but two bags containing the money.  Someone else finds the money and instead of stuffing their pockets hands it over to the cops.  The cops, instead of stuffing their pockets enhancing department revenue with potentially illicit funds, actually tried to find out who the money belonged to and did reuniting the man with his money.

The forth example for GFF is by far the most awesome.  No, it doesn't top 18 people surgery for complexity and coordination.  It's not as potentially life saving as teenage Jack Andraka's idea for cancer detection.  The amount of money is nowhere near as big as the homeless and his bags of cash.

The reason this story is a big deal, and even a bigger deal in some ways compared to the other stories, is that its a GFF everyone can and should do.

Waitress Picks Up the Tab, Gives Restaurant the Credit

Kayla Lane waits tables for a living.  She says she's good with names and people.  Your better waitresses are.  They remember you and little details of your life and are good at making small talk and remembering your usual order.

Shaun and Debbie Riddle were surprised she remembered them this afternoon. They hadn’t been by for a while. She also remembered their newborn daughter, Glory, and asked about her.

“They kind of looked at each other and were very silent,” said Lane. “We said, ‘Well, she passed away four weeks ago,'” said Shaun.

At the end of the couple’s meal, the waitress slipped them a receipt with a simple message.

“Your ticket has been paid for. We are terribly sorry for your loss. God Bless. – The West Side.”

I don't know what lunch for two costs at the West Side Café, maybe $20 or $30 tops. I'm sure that's more than Kayla Lane makes per hour.  Regardless Kayla picked up the tab.  When the folks she did it for tried to refuse, she lied and said the company had done it.  Apparently this is a pattern of behavior for Ms Lane.  It seems she buys lunch for people who are in the service, or down on their luck and has a system worked out so she can get away with it and not get caught.

This time she got busted.  I'm glad she did.  I'm glad because her little contribution to the worlds supply of goodness is something we all can do.  I'm not ever going to be able to preform a bunch of life saving surgery's.  I'm not inline to cure caner.  You don't find bags of money laying around everyday, and if I did, I'd want to keep it.

You do get to drop a couple of bucks in that jar.  You know the jar.  It's the one on the counter of the convenience store where you buy beer and lottery tickets. It's for the family with the sick kids, or that lost their home, or that have some sad story.  If you got $10 for the lottery you damn sure got $10 for some kid with cancer.  "How do I know its really going for...?", you may ask.  How do you know its not? 

If the can says "American Red Cross" or "Salvation Army" or some big name professional money machine, its a scam.  If its a hand written note, that looks like a scared 19 year old mother of two who doesn't know how she is going to face tomorrow, wrote it, take the chance. 

I've gone and turned GFF into a sermon.  I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not.  We don't get to do the big GFF stuff.  We do get a shot at the small stuff and I'm going to start pulling the trigger more often.  Flirt with the plain girl.  Buy the drink for the guy at the bar having a bad day.  That women, you know the women, the one with 4 brat kids acting up.  Her brats have been out of control since she walked in and sat down.  It would have been a perfect lunch if she hadn't showed up.  That women, the one who deserves it least, pick up her tab and pay it.  She is having a bad day, and you can make it a little better.

For a bonus, skip out before they know you did it.

IT PAYS TO WEAR SEAT BELTS

A California policeman pulled a car over and told the driver that because he had been wearing his seatbelt, he had just won $5,000 dollars in the statewide safety competition.

"What are you going to do with the money?" asked the policeman. "Well, I guess I'm going to get a driver's license," he answered.

"Oh, don't listen to him," yelled a woman in the passenger seat. "He's a smart aleck when he's drunk."

This woke up the guy in the backseat, who took one look at the cop and moaned, "I knew we wouldn't get far in a stolen car."

At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a voice said, with a Spanish accent, "Are we over the border yet?"

Blast From the Past or Child Abuse?

"And you of tender years, can't know the fears that your elders grew by"

Or their music.

My kids are at an age where I get to be silly.  Today the silliness drove me to show them some YouTube videos of Weird Al Yankovic.  I thought he hilarious in the 80's and his parodies never get old. 

The kids weren't sure about it.  My son thought the Star Wars stuff was cool.  My daughter was less than amused by "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch".  It might have had something to do with her complaining that she was hungry and I need to fix her something to eat for lunch.  I believe she said she was starving.

I thought it was funny. 

GFF “Operation Choose Joy”

This is what courage looks like:

Robyn Willson says she’ll always remember her mother’s cancer treatments as “something that we enjoyed.” That’s because she and her mother decided to make chemotherapy fun.

After learning that her mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Robyn decided that the two of them would dress up in different costumes each time Carla had to go in for a chemotherapy treatment.

Carla passed away May 29– and she was in costume.

Robyn says she knew cancer would take her mother one day, but it will never take the laugh-filled memories they made every time they played dress up.

 Memento Mori!

Since cancer is such a cheery topic I'll do one more from the great frozen Cannuckistan. 

Car Mechanics Made Sure We Could Always Get Our Daughter To Hospital

I believe most parents of kids with cancer would agree that there are an infinite number of stresses in this life of childhood cancer. Yet there were so many strangers that came into our lives who seemed to understand what we were going through.

Having lost our jobs, living on the generosity of others is scary. We didn’t live in the city so anytime our vehicle made an odd noise or we knew it needed repairs, I felt sick. The first time we took our van in to get fixed after her diagnosis, I chewed on my finger nails knowing how little money we had, yet having a way to get her to the hospital was paramount.

So there I stood in front of the counter waiting to hear the total “damage” – I knew it would be over a thousand dollars.

But Dave handed me the keys and when I asked how much it was, he said not to worry about it– they looked after it.

That's pretty much the whole story.  Dave and Chris from Ballymote Auto in Ballymote, Ontario keep that old junker running, free of charge.  That means every time the car made an odd noise or something was amiss they just fixed it for free.  They donated their time and the cost of the parts and the lost opportunity cost from not working on paying customers cars just because a sick kid needed to be able to get to the hospital.

Quick Question

I know this is a bit off the wall but I've got something coming up that I'm prepping for and would be interested in hearing different POV's.

When it comes to eschatology, what are the top 3 or 4 issues that you see as most important for someone who is just starting to examine the subject?   I know that's kind of basic so if you want to opine on the top 3 or 4 issues that are important to understanding the subject on a more advanced level that's OK too.  You could list it both ways if you like too.  Please let me know if you are approaching the question from a basic or advanced POV. 

Thanks.

PROVERBS by CHILDREN

A first grade teacher collected well-known proverbs. She gave each child in her class the first half of a proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. Their insight may surprise you.

Better to be safe than ... punch a 5th grader.

Strike while the ... bug is close.

It's always darkest before ... Daylight Savings Time.

Never underestimate the power of ... termites.

You can lead a horse to water but ... how?

Don't bite the hand that ... looks dirty.

No news is ... impossible.

A miss is as good as a ... Mr.

You can't teach an old dog new ... math.

If you lie down with dogs, you'll ... stink in the morning.

The pen is mightier than the ... pigs.

An idle mind is ... the best way to relax.

Where there's smoke there's ... pollution.

Happy is the bride who ... gets all the presents.

A penny saved is ... not much.

Two's company, three's ... the Musketeers.

Don't put off till tomorrow what ... you put on to go to bed.

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and ... you have to blow your nose.