Starting A New Decade
Or, as a subtitle to this post, "People have lost their damn minds!"
Aaron would have turned 41 today. And it upsets me that I can't figure out what he'd be doing now. A new decade, a new beginning--?
He'd certainly have mentioned the senseless killings and shooting spree that took place in Tuscon over this past weekend.
Last year on this blog, I asked that donations be made to certain groups--see the Aaron's 40th Birthday post for details. And this was before finding out the nation-wide extent of the earthquake damage to Haiti, which began a year ago. Please, please consider making donations to any of the groups named below, or to any of the groups helping Haiti. Or donate to a group carrying out work that you care about. Last year, I made donations to Hollywood Unites for Haiti, the charity group founded by Haitian actor Jimmy Jean-Louis; to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund; and to RAINN.
As I've said before, feel free to write me with any questions.
If you use any of the various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to talk about this, use the tag #aaron41.
P.S. I see that the New York Times has an article, Cyberspace When You're Dead, from January 5, 2011, which I'll be reading later on...
P.P.S. And of course there were errors throughout today, one of the few days I actually point people to the blog. Of course...
Aaron's 40th Birthday
Today, January 12, 2010, would have been Aaron's 40th birthday. It's now been over five years since he died. All I can ever think of is everything he's missed (from the ridiculous to the sublime) -- including our cousin's daughter born just weeks after he passed away, sister Karen's sometimes national byline, Mom's church messages and play appearances, seeing UK's Doctor Who return with good special effects and the Buffy and Angel comic books, which are pop culture things we would have enjoyed together.
To celebrate Aaron's 40th birthday, I had the idea of donating $40 to a charity or nonprofit institution in his name. Aaron sometimes volunteered his time, helping in homeless shelters. One group my mother works with through her church is South Suburban PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter), which would be grateful for a donation in these times. My mother also helps with her church's contribution to the annual CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) Walk event. Five years ago, when we held a memorial on this date -- on one of the coldest nights Chicago could come up with! -- we were at Chicago's Women & Children First Bookstore, where we unexpectedly received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Chicago's Thousand Waves Martial Arts & Self-Defense Center.
Or, if money's tight -- and these days it's tight for everybody -- there's the idea of spending 40 minutes reading about some of the things Aaron talked about on his blog -- like Buffy, Angel, or Doctor Who -- or Noam Chomsky, political science, linguistics, black American history, Aaron McGruder's Boondocks comics and TV show (Aaron would have loved the TV show!). Expand your mind in a way that reading Aaron's blog helped you to do.
Or, if this is your first time here, feel free to read the blog!
Feel free to write me with any questions.
If you use any of the various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to talk about this, use the tag #aaron40.
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