Apr

1

Miscellany: good works, good books and more

April 1, 2007 |

From the How Cool is That files, here’s a new one: GoodSearch
Every time you use this to search the web, money goes to your favorite charity. It even comes with a plugins and toolbars for IE7, FireFox and Safari.

Really, how cool is that? Searches are powered by Yahoo, so supposedly results are just as good as your ordinary search engine. Only this way, I get to justify at least a little of the wholly inappropriate amounts of time I spend online anyway. I think I’m going to try this thing out for a while and see what comes. I’m also going to send this link around to some of my nonprofit friends, and see if it really does help out for them.

On the exact other end of the coolness spectrum, I was just linked to a video of Karl Rove rapping at the White House press corps conference last week. They should’ve stuck with Colbert. He may have started lobbing boulders in a notoriously fragile glass house, but at least he didn’t make everybody sick. Seriously, this is a dinner event. People were eating.

In personal news, today my horoscope advises me against taking risks and embarking on overly ambitious or idealistic projects. Today I am ignoring my horoscope.

One of my current books is Suze Orman’s Women and Money. I’m a big fan of Orman, and even when I don’t agree with her (or don’t have any idea what she’s talking about), I really enjoy reading her work. I just finished her section on women and volunteer work, couched in the chapter advising women that “you are not on sale.” Orman notes:

It never fails that when I participate in a women’s conference or meeting, there is one speaker who makes the point that volunteering is terrifically important for women. It is always the same message: We owe it to society to give back, and we owe it to our children to set a good example of giving back. The audience always nods eagerly in agreement. Now, here is what I find fascinating. I have never once–and I mean not once–heard a male speaker make that point. . . . What is that about?
. . . Do men volunteer? Of course. But not in the same way.

She goes on to point out that men tend to take well-profiled leadership roles in their volunteer positions, while “women tend to take on the more labor- and time-intensive behind-the-scenes tasks.” I thought that was a significant sort of trend to notice, and also something I ought to start keeping in mind. This little section was very interesting to me, mostly because I had two experiences in the past weel where I learned a little more about prioritizing my volunteer/help-humanity sorts of work and, when necessary, turning down extra tasks.

The first was donating blood on Wednesday. It took an hour I couldn’t afford out of a very busy afternoon and I was practically out of commission for the rest of the day. On top of that, I only barely hover around their minimum weight limit, and stupidly hadn’t bothered to check in the past week or so whether I still met it. So I’ve asked everybody I know to please remind me not to do that again, at least until I’ve got a little more time and body mass to spare. Donating blood is good, but throwing yourself all out of whack to do it just isn’t.

I also got a call for the PEN World Voices festival for 2007–they’re in need of volunteer staff for the festival this year. PEN is a great organization and I’ve gone to both of their annual WV festivals so far. I’d love to help out at a day of events, but my calendar this month simply doesn’t allow for it. It’s unfortunate, but I do have to remember that in order to really make a difference with the work I already do, whether in my career or the social work sphere, I have to be able to give it a meaningful amount of time and attention.

(However, if you are reading this and would like to help PEN out–if you really do have time and motivation to spare between 4/24 and 4/29–you can go here for more information and contact Andrew Proctor / aproctor@pen.org to sign up. List which days of the festival you’re available, contact information and any foreign languages you speak. You’ll get cultural karma points, for sure.)

In any case, Orman’s book is amazing so far and I’m recommending it to every woman I know, from my grandmother to my friends. And since I get paid to promote books all week, I should point out that I don’t work for the publishers of this book or their parent company. I don’t care even a tiny bit if you buy it from a bookstore, borrow it from a friend or check it out from the library. This is just a really great book that every woman should read. Do yourself a favor and go get a copy.


Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind