bushfire

How Quickly We Forget. (And Bushfire Donation List)

| Betsy

Seeing that I was sick on Valentine’s Day, I never got to post the following photo. I still don’t understand how these hearts in the big plastic bag made it pass the cut and were allowed to mingle with tiny pastel hearts that say “kiss me” or “in love” or even the somewhat pathetic attempt to remain hip, “u r the 1.” It may seem completely unrelated to the rest of the post, but deep down, I think it makes sense somehow?

It’s been a few days since the bushfires caused havoc in Australia. It’s out of our radar now for those of us outside of Australia. Old news.

We have other conflicts and troubles and fights and skuffles to take care of, so there’s a few days spent on illuminating a disaster and then it’s time to move on. It’s always after the news cameras turn away their gaze that people need your help most. I’ve been sick for the past few days and largely away from the computer, and was worried because I hadn’t posted the links that my new friend Bev had sent me. What was I worried about? That they would disappear? That something bigger would happen? Something closer to home?

Has our culture truly turned into one of “out of sight out of mind?” Do problems only resonate with us if and when we are personally touched by them? Sometimes I think this is true, sometimes I completely disagree. I guess then maybe the answer is quite simply, sometimes. If there is a personal connection to an issue/event/cause that tugs at your own heartstrings already, when someone comes along telling you more or asking for donations, we’re more likely to step up and listen or check our pockets for extra change.

I struggle with why I feel the way I do about certain issues and how those close to me don’t feel the same sense of anger or confusion or change. I know it’s often due to some minor event in someone’s life that brought attention to various things, meeting a Somali refugee on the bus, having a classmate with spina bifida, reading an article on teenage suicide in a magazine at the doctor’s office. And I wonder if later we can recall the moment our feelings changed and why, or if we just find ourselves with the urge to fight, help or save.

I like the fact that something I read about today may intertwine with the way I act in the future, even if I don’t really know what it said or where it was. It’s all about that resonation, the way ideas and things and people sink in you and stay no matter what the news or our friend or our country is telling us. It means that not everything is out of sight out of mind.

So you want to help raise money for bushfire victims? Here are some good places to start:

Handmade Help
*A new Melbourne-based craft blog that will keep you up-to-date on crafty things for sale whose proceeds are going to help fire victims.

The Toy Society
*The well-known secret service of softies who collect toys for kids in need!

Curly Pops
*50% of all the sales in this shop up until Feb 22 will go to the…

Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal

Rainbow Comfort Packs
*Collecting toys for children affected by the bushfires

Rayna’s collecting donations and selling crafts for the Australian Red Cross over here

For more information about the fires, check out this collection of bushfire news from Melbourne’s The Age.

Also interesting is an article on what caused so many people to die in the fires. You can read it here.

Lucky.

| Betsy

After just getting home from a basketball game watching people cheer and smile and wave pom-poms, I’m mega-annoyed that my cat, Bobbin, is seemingly doing everything in her power to cause mass destruction of the house. I’m wishing that she could tell me what was wrong and that the hyper effects of the largest and most expensive Diet Coke would go away so I could sleep. I’m not comforted by the facts that I have “Jump Around” by House of Pain in my head after a particularly slow half-time show involving musical chairs and came home with my own souvenir cup.

I am, however, comforted by the fact that the craft community has come together again to help the victims of the current brushfires in Australia, with the fatality count right now at 173 and climbing. Thanks to a tip from Rayna, I learned that there are an increasing number of items on sale over at Etsy with proceeds going to benefit bushfire victims.

It’s hard to go to sleep some nights, even without the added kick of caffeine, thinking that we are all caught somewhere in that balance between beautiful and horrible…and that the only thing I have to worry about tonight is if my cat will wake me up. I’m not faced with war or genocide or hunger or drought or domestic violence or homelessness or any of the long laundry list of things that could be wrong. There are those that I love and those that my loved ones love who are affected by some of those things, but hopefully, tonight will be quiet in our little world.

If I’m lucky, I’ll wake up to coffee brewing and a sleepy cat by my side, warmed by my duvet and the sun coming in the window. Then I’ll get up and turn on the news and see that the bushfire destruction has worsened while I was asleep and that troops somewhere far and most likely sandy have been killed and more children than I can count have died due to hunger or thirst. And then I’ll roll up my shirtsleeves and work and do a few tiny things that will hopefully benefit someone’s day. And I’ll hope that each thing I do, no matter how tiny, will cause good. Then I’ll go back to sleep and wake up to coffee and the cat and the news and more work and more tiny good things, if I’m lucky.

And I’ll be humbled and honored and energized by the fact that all over the world, there are people making things and doing things to make the days and nights better for the unlucky. It will make me continue to move forward with hope and love despite the news and the bad days. With the crafters, the artists, the volunteers, the teachers, the dreamers, the soldiers I keep doing the tiny things and fighting in the hope that I can make someone else’s day lucky, too.