The numbers don’t lie.
Already donations for the red kettles are down some $7,000 from this time last year, a deficit expected to grow as the holiday season wears on.
Already places like the Saint Martin Center and Community Shelter Services have closed applications for holiday assistance, turning out hundreds because they don’t want to make promises their coffers can not keep.
In sad irony, many families who used to give are now on the waiting lists.
In pure business terms, when it comes to need, the demand is far outpacing the supply this year.
These are the real faces behind the economic numbers, the flesh and blood fears beyond the wild swings of the Dow.
As it always has, the world continues to break down into two groups; those who have and those who do not.
This year, more than many in the past, the impetus for the one group to help the other is critical.
I’m not suggesting that we are not caring people.
Despite recession fears that reach far up the economic ladder, the people of this area do astounding work through efforts like the United Way and local churches.
My suggestion is that those of us who can need to do just a little more this time.
My focus is going to be on lunch.
That may not be surprising for those of you who know me.
I try to bring my lunch to work when I can because it’s more economical and easier to control calories.
But often in the morning rush I forget and wind up grabbing something out, six or seven dollars spent that are quickly forgotten.
For the next few weeks I’m concentrating on being more diligent about that, and setting aside that money that would otherwise be headed through some fast food window.
It’s not a lot but it’s something, something small, something that I won’t even miss.
What’s your Something Small?
Is it that high end cup of coffee in the morning?
That change rattling in the bottom of the purse?
Imagine the difference that might make to a kid who otherwise might not have anything for Christmas?
The increases we see in crime and violence on the street don’t come from decreases in the Dow but from increases in hopelessness.
The message isn’t in a material thing that comes with the holidays.
It’s the seed planted in the back of a small mind that in a world that can often be bleak, cold and uncaring for one brief moment, somebody somewhere gave a damn.
I don’t know what 2009 holds.
My business is feeling the pinch like everybody else.
But I do know that right here, right now, my kids are healthy and my wife and I are both working.
We can do something.
It may be something small, but you know what?
A lot of Something Smalls can add up to Something Special.