giving

I see that our most recent Momversation video isn’t exactly well received.

Apparently to be successful in the blogosphere one needs to be poor, crippled, in mourning or preaching charity at every turn.

When I go to my email inboxes I have dozens of emails from various charities asking for support. Mostly I get these end of year emails because I’ve given during the year. There are dozens more emails for last minute gifts, and ways to alleviate holiday stress. I have no holiday stress, Chanukkah is over.

The worst emails are marketing all wrapped up for the holidays in gauzy charities. No, I don’t want to buy razor blades that will support Nigerian Refugees. The fine print caps the donation at $50,000, so it’s pretty clear that my purchase won’t contribute a damn thing.

No, wait, the worst emails are the pay it forward, we aren’t a 501c yet, but we will be soon. Those are the worst. I do not want to buy XMas gifts for strangers on the internet. I don’t want to help an entire website devoted to cyberbegging. I will not send strangers money. Not today, and not any time of year.

I’m not even sorry that I’m not poor, sick, widowed, divorced, psychologically imbalanced, or involved in a nonprofit.

I am unapologetically going to enjoy my husband, my children, my brother, my parents, my cat and my dog, all of whom are healthy, happy and employed (animals excluded).

I am not going to be bullied into shilling your stupid shit because of a holiday I don’t celebrate. I’m not going to be updating my facebook status to say things like Rosemary needs an Amazon gift card so that she can buy her baby a cute devil costume for the holidays.

I gave. I gave my money and my time all year long. I gave my heart and soul to an essay for a book. I abused 17,000 strangers on Twitter to win a Pepsi Grant for the homeless. I don’t even LIKE Pepsi. I have written checks to charities y’all have never heard of, and I’ve only been thanked for some of them.

And that is okay.

So I’m really fucking sorry that I’m not in dire straits. I get that misery loves company. If you’re looking to commiserate, I can’t help you, but I’m pretty sure a few hundred thousand blogs can.