I know someone whose sister slowly died from ALS. Her family pulled together and supported her. They had a very strong network. The disease gets very little attention from the charitable communities because it doesn’t strike a whole lot of people. When it does strike, it is a very cruel disease. It takes its time as it snatches away valuable parts of your life before finally allowing you to depart. 

There’s a very popular challenge which is now heating up in social media  around ALS,   If you have money, you write a check, and if you don’t, you make a little video to raise awareness on the disease. 

Fantastic idea. I’m not much the video-grapher, so I’ll likely make a donation and move forward through my day with dry clothes. There are other organizations such as SOME and HOPE-DC that occasionally get a check from me as well. SOME offers hand-ups (not hand outs) and do good work for people who need it and HOPE-DC does their best to try to prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS in the DC Metro area.

Now, if you don’t have money to donate or aren’t really interested in that sort of thing but want to do something good for the economy, good for yourself, and good for someone you love?

Pledge to write and mail at least one letter a month.

Why?

Because handwriting is becoming a lost art.

Because someone in your life would really enjoy going out to the mailbox today and getting a little note from you.

Because all of the typing into devices we are doing and paying bills online are making it harder for a pretty big chunk of our population to make a living.

Because Congress has placed an unfair burden on US Postal Workers pensions with the ultimate goal of reneging on agreements to pay the portion of their wages they reserved for their retirement funds.

Because Wall Street really wants to sink their bony, greedy talons into that big old chunk of Postal Worker pension money and siphon off people’s livelihoods in bad deals and big fees.

Because the scritching sound of pencil or pen on paper is calming and delightful in the extreme.

And finally, because you really need to practice your penmanship, because your handwriting is becoming a mess.

No ice bucket needed for this challenge.

Feel free to share this post. Or not.