Earlier this week I helped donate a care package to American troops serving in the middle east. It wasn't hard, and it was free, but I'll bet the people who received them didn't give a fuck that I and others didn't actually spend any money. I think they're glad to know that someone cares enough to spend thirty seconds typing a brief message into a box (seems somewhat sad that it's possible to imagine that thirty seconds of caring would be enough to brighten someone's day). I just regret to hell that I didn't tell more people about it. If anyone had asked me why I would want anything to be donated to soldiers, I would say the following:
Soldiers are people, in stressful positions, and people in stressful positions need to know that someone gives a fuck. Simple as that. I don't know much about war, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the war there. I've never personally seen someone be killed, or have personally killed anyone. I've never endured great deprivation, or mortal terror. But I am willing to bet that these things add up rapidly to feeling alienated and weird. Imagine you knew something, had experienced something, so powerful - almost defining - and no-one could understand? You could tell people and they would hear your words but they just wouldn't get it? And would it not be a relief for someone to say: 'hey man, I know you're going through some shit that I don't get, but I'm sympathetic, and here's a token of that'
How it worked was like this: A company (Revision Military) and a charity (Any Soldier) that started it made up a number of care package boxes with magazines, some beef jerky, and some Sawfly military goggles that the company make (apparently they are a desirable item). They then invited people to put a message on them to send to the soldiers out there. Atheist-in-the-military Justin Griffiths made this post on his blog Rock Beyond Belief to let his readers know there was something tangible to do.
We atheists apparently did a lot of this.
I was a small part of something, and it felt good. I'll be looking for bigger parts in bigger things in the future.
Any suggestions?
Soldiers are people, in stressful positions, and people in stressful positions need to know that someone gives a fuck. Simple as that. I don't know much about war, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the war there. I've never personally seen someone be killed, or have personally killed anyone. I've never endured great deprivation, or mortal terror. But I am willing to bet that these things add up rapidly to feeling alienated and weird. Imagine you knew something, had experienced something, so powerful - almost defining - and no-one could understand? You could tell people and they would hear your words but they just wouldn't get it? And would it not be a relief for someone to say: 'hey man, I know you're going through some shit that I don't get, but I'm sympathetic, and here's a token of that'
How it worked was like this: A company (Revision Military) and a charity (Any Soldier) that started it made up a number of care package boxes with magazines, some beef jerky, and some Sawfly military goggles that the company make (apparently they are a desirable item). They then invited people to put a message on them to send to the soldiers out there. Atheist-in-the-military Justin Griffiths made this post on his blog Rock Beyond Belief to let his readers know there was something tangible to do.
We atheists apparently did a lot of this.
I was a small part of something, and it felt good. I'll be looking for bigger parts in bigger things in the future.
Any suggestions?
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