Bed Time Ritual

When I was a kid I could not go to sleep without my dad having tucked me in first. I would get in bed after hugging and kissing my family and wait for him to arrive to do the task. I could not fall asleep until it was done and he understood this . So he would swiftly appear and tuck in my sheets and fluff up my pillows. Often times he would tuck in my sheets so tight that I could not move, but that was how I liked. Once he was done he would give me a kiss goodnight an turn off my light, leaving my door just wide enough so I could see a sliver of light from the hall. It was a ritual of many years, one (I must admit) I recently grew out of.
I think back upon it now and I can’t help but wonder its importance. My father tucking me in was not the essential key to my sleeping, it was the mere fact that I had created a world where his tucking me in was the key. It was a ritual that made me feel comfortable, together, safe and at home. While I was growing a and experiencing new things around me in school and my community, this was a ritual that kept me sane and comfortable. I believe that is where rituals do their part. They help one feel as though they are in control, and consequently this makes them more comfortable with life. Now today I have other rituals that make me feel better about life. All of them helping me to feel in control.

Google has our best interests in mind

Thanksgiving is coming soon and my job is to think of some new recipes for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to make a bundt cake and not having a recipe book so I had to find one somewhere. So what did I do? I Googled it. Although Google is just a search engine, it has become so efficient at what it does that we have begun to use its very name as a verb. So I type in the name “ bundt cake,” and a list of websites with various bundt cake recipes. There was much more than I could find in a recipe book. I find an Amaretto Bundt cake recipe and I am on my way

Google has created the ultimate search engine. Many people are dependent on it for all information. I probably use Google 10 to 20 times a day just to get information about the world. Anything I need to know the answer is there. Yet you wonder where Google makes their money. The same way most companies do, through advertising. However, many might ask where are the ads? There are no bright pop ups, No dancing people on the side saying they got a free credit report, no flashing banner advertising a free laptop. Instead there is a small column on the right site of the page with advertisements for companies that offer products or services related to your search. Often times those ads can be just as important to your search as the websites that initially come up.

When searching for my bundt cake recipe ads come up for bundt cake pans from HSN, or bundt cake mixes from Target; all things I could use to help me make a cake. Google has even started advertising like this in their email program. When I open an email Google uses key words to link ads to. An email about student government will bring up government ads and student government help sites. Googles ads have turned out to be more helpful than an annoyance.

It is in Google’s list of ten things they know to be true where one can find their philosophy on advertising. Number six of their ten things is a statement that I think evokes the very virtue of Google, “You can make money without doing evil.” With this very statement we can see the goal of Google. They want to produce advertising that is not intrusive. They accomplish it effectively and in the process persuade us to purchase things that are beneficial to our lives at the time. I think that is the way that advertising should be. It should not blast things in our faces that are irrelevant to what we are doing at the time. Advertising should capitalize on what we as consumers are actually looking for and I think that Google has accomplished that aim.

Acumen Fund

When one comes upon the Acumen fund website they are met with changing scenes of colorful people enjoying the simple aspects of life; many of those things being commodities that western citizens take for granted. A young boy holding a bowl out to catch a torrent stream of fresh water or a man sitting down to read a couple pamphlets, an advertisement for an ambulance are just a few of the scenes of life Acumen fund has been affecting. All are very significant results of the work of Acumen fund to empower people to the point of sustainability and economic success.
It does not take as much work to write a check and contribute to an organization, or bestow it on a family or community. However, there is much more to say for someone who takes the time to develop programs that are there to help everyone gain something; encouraging entrepreneurship and investments to help those people who are living below the poverty line. Jacqueline Novogratz‘s story of walking off wall street and into a developmental entrepreneurship was inspiring; someone who used her talents to create economy boosting programs in communities that have struggled with sub par average incomes. Seth Godin really challenges you to look being useful to society. I thought it was interesting that he felt that to help the cause of the Acumen fund, the Acumen fund needs competition. It is interesting that an organization like this would love for more organizations to come out so that they could all service the needs of the people. That is definitely forward thinking.

How Should We Give?

In a wallowing economy people tend to tie up their purse strings and sit on their wallets. This is how they remain unless something is needed for the person or for those who are important to them. Everyone wants to benefit from an dollar expenditure. Even when taxes are paid they want to make sure that they are paying for services that will benefit them. This inherent need to survive grows with a lack of resources and increased competition. In times like these people fight against any loss of their money, especially if it goes to help others and not themselves.

Near the end of this summer, I had the most tedious privilege of waiting for my car's windshield to be fixed. As I sat in the waiting room studying for an upcoming test, I listened to a conversation between a male receptionist and a man also there waiting for his car. They spoke about their lives, discussed the military and then landed the issue of welfare. The man waiting was livid that our president would allow his tax dollars to aid the poor (who apparently did not work for them)and for immigrants who he thought should go back to their home countries. I was floored by this idea. We all pay for the up keep of roads in our states and towns yet we do not use them all. We pay for the education of children yet we don't all have children and are not all in school. Yet why is it that we fight to pay a little so that people can at least get above the poverty line; people who often have not had the same opportunities or privileges that many of us have benefited from.

Although, many believe that the government is taking their arm and leg just to help someone else live easy, they do not realize that those tax dollars are not enough. It covers just their basic needs, and if one of the people living with the welfare gets a even a few cents raise they could be kicked off welfare and thrown into a worse situation than they had been before. So even though we may think that taxes are enough they truly fall short.

I believe, we as humans (not even just as Christians) need to give time and money (outside of taxes) to help increase a persons economic, social, and economic status. We need to donate money to organizations that are trying hard to give people opportunities or a service that they cannot afford. Through these programs people have been able to improve their economic status and climbed out of the hole that they might have been in. We also need to take part in service realizing where our money is going and also creating connections with people. These connections give people strength. Isn't this what Jesus would want us to do love our neighbor with the giving of our resources and most of all with our time.