Taking Attendance - Are You Present? (And More Kindness Yard Sale Accounting!!)

Remember when the teacher used to take ATTENDANCE?  Count who was THERE for the day?

I think that we (humans in general) are sometimes in ATTENDANCE, but not really PRESENT. 

Know what I mean?  I for one am guilty!  Took a long road trip this week, but how much scenery did I see (vs. how many games of Words With Friends did I play…)?  This is something I have tried to work on in my life the past decade or so – being PRESENT in moments, paying attention, getting involved, interacting, and noticing things.

In that vein, 2 days ago I posted this on a Facebook page I run called “Kindness Activist”:

“Hypothetical question: if someone handed you $50 right now, what would you do with it?   #KindnessActivist “

Only, guess what, it was NOT a hypothetical question.  It was real – a genuine query to see what people would do if I gave them $50 of the proceeds from the Kindness Activist Yard Sale.  I have had the pleasure of using some of the money, I wanted to see what others might do with it if they were given the chance to share it.

The results were confounding to me.  80 people viewed the post.  13 people “engaged” with the post (whatever that means).  And only 2 – TWO – took time to ponder what they would do with the $50 and reply.  That astounds me, because it seems so opposite of what my immediate response would be to a prompt like that!  I think if I were asked the same question, I would reply with a dozen things I would like to use $50 for 😊 . 

I thought about WHY people may not have responded.  Ideas I came up with:

•  Too busy
•  Uninterested
•  $50 was not enough money to take a break in their day to consider how they would use it
• Hypotheticals aren’t their thing
• Too much effort to think of something
• They deemed it a stupid post 😊
• They thought someone else would have a better idea of what to do with the money

But 2 people DID reply.  I considered what that might mean about them:

•       They had some downtime to think about the question
•          They like hypotheticals
•          They suspected it might not be hypothetical
•          They live their lives as present, engaged, creative, and interactive people

Note:  I am NOT dissing anyone who saw the post and didn’t reply, I just really like the social experiment aspect of it and considering the ins/outs/whys of it all.

I hope the 2 respondents don’t mind if I extrapolate a bit about them here.  

Rebecca

The first to reply was Rebecca Kinder Lahan.  I have known here for many years (she was in our wedding 😊 ).  I know her to be very creative, genuine, caring, and honest.  She is a super fun mother of 3 and is so concerned about the state of education where she lives that she ran for school board and was elected.  Plus, she and her family take a terrific photo with Santa every year.  GO REBECCA!  She said that she would use the $50 to donate to RAICES to help migrant families at the border. 

Samantha

The other respondent was Samantha Marcum Blackaby.  I have not known Samantha very long – she is the niece of our Florida neighbor.  What I DO know about her is that when her Aunt Carol (our neighbor) died and we went to Kentucky for the funeral, Samantha opened up her home to us as if we were family.  She lives on a farm and she let us throw on some borrowed boots for the mud and took us city-folk on a tour of that farm that I will never forget.  I was in a CHICKEN COOP, people!!  And the next day she cooked us a breakfast like no other – there was food for days, all of it made by her (and her parents) even though they were in the middle of grieving a dear relative.  I also know she is a very supportive mother, in love with her little nephew, has gone through some super tough experiences in her life but keeps smiling, and is an amazing 3^rd grade teacher in rural Kentucky.  Samantha said she would use the $50 to buy a pair of tennis shoes for a child she knows for the upcoming school year.

Now for the accounting part of this post:

·         

     Rebecca - $50 of the proceeds from the Kindness Yard Sale have been donated to RAICES in your name

·    

     Samantha - $50 of the proceeds from the Kindness Yard Sale are heading your way to invest in new shoes for your deserving student

And to the rest of us – let’s strive to live like today isn’t hypothetical.  Let’s engage, interact, create – be it in the virtual world or in the real one that surrounds us. 

Let’s BE IN ATTENDENCE and BE PRESENT. 

P.S. – we miiiight have bought some Powerball tickets to hand out…  I mean, hypothetically speaking, there could be a couple of chances for someone, maybe YOU, to turn into a millionaire come Wednesday June 26^th….  If you want to be PRESENT for that, comment here.  I mean, SOMEBODY’S gotta win, right? 

P.P.S. – if you would like to follow Rebecca’s lead and donate to RAICES, here is how:  https://www.raicestexas.org/donate/