Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess |
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I could start out by complaining about how insensitive the corporate world is; for instance, the people at the top of the newspaper chain didn't seem to worry about what time we got home to see our kids open Christmas gifts on Christmas morning. Someone at the top agreed to advertising that consisted of a large "comic/ads" section similar to a Sunday Edition, and what was originally Post-It© Notes (and has turned into just a 2.5" x 2.5" square that you peel from a shiney sheet of paper and stick to the front page of the paper), that must be placed on each paper. The amount of wasted paper (and time) is atrocious! Since the union contracts are almost coming to an end, they are dilly-dallying with each task, making the arrival of our papers to the depots anywhere from one to two hours late. Christmas morning was very close to two hours late. I myself, though childless, received a call at 5:10am from Bob's grandson asking how much longer he'd have to wait to open gifts. I felt horrible with my reply of, "Two hours." I was glad to see his mother did allow him to open a few things while waiting for us to place a sticker on each of several hundred papers, then fold an unusually large paper to be tucked into a plastic bag or plastic paper box (tube), being extra careful since it was raining. What a shame for those who actually have their OWN kids who had to wait for mom or dad or in some cases BOTH, to get home before opening any gifts. But instead...I thought I'd pass along a true Christmas story about giving. I have a friend who, years ago, gave up schooling and an individual life to stay home and take care of her mother. She has three older brothers, but typically, the "girl" of the family is always the one better suited to play nurse. When mom got better, my friend, Miss M, made her way out to find a job. She found a customer service position she liked along the busline. That lasted a few years before the company moved, leaving her unemployed. The only place along the busline that hired her after that was the local grocery store, but they kept bumping up her hours until she was working more than she sleeping each week, and eventually had to quit. She visited that cycle several times before just giving up on that option, but continued to look for something else along the busline. A couple of years ago, I got far enough ahead financially that I was able to put together a cheap computer for her to use, hoping we'd be able to find her some kind of online job. While working toward a Medical Transcription career, she found some loyal friends in a 3-D chat-type setup. Each person creates their own little animated person, or Avatar; it can be representative of yourself, or the self you wish you could be.  Nobody at the other end of the internet really knows, so it's a very creative and fun way to keep in touch with new friends. She calls them pixel pals, and together, they've gotten each other through illnesses, divorces, deaths and various positive celebrations. About three months ago, Miss M's mom ended up in surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor, and because of her age, she's been in a group home / rehab setting to get through post-cancer treatments. That has left Miss M taking care of the finances, which has been hard enough, but the bigger concern is, that if mom can't come home again, her social security may be used to pay her rent somewhere, leaving Miss M without any income until she finishes the schooling or finds something else. Now, we all know that anyone working a minimum wage job cannot make it on that income alone, so this presents quite a predicament. Miss M's mom is very concerned about people on the computer being less than honorable, and doesn't permit Miss M to give out real names or addresses or a phone number. One of the pixes pals was sly, asking for my email address to ask a computer question. What they REALLY did, was gather money from every pixel pal they could think of, and PayPal'ed it to me so I could drop it off to her for Christmas. It was a very large sum of money, and presented some breathing room for Miss M's budget - even a Christmas gift for herself if she so desired. Another pixel friend sent a beautiful Fenton glass bowl to decorate Miss M's desk. She's been alone without her mom, and trying to make it without a car or much support of any kind, other than her friends that live inside the computer. These people - people she's never met face to face - pulled together to give more than any of us who know her personally even THOUGHT about giving. THAT's a Christmas story worth repeating!! ***For those of you not so digitally saavy, PayPal is an online bank that started out primarily with eBay, but now, is used on many websites to collect money via credit card or digital transfer from a checking account. Since I have a PayPal account, the Pixel Pals were able to send money using their checking accounts or credit cards without divulging any account numbers, and transfer it to my checking account without me having a merchant account... which is what stores and businesses use to collect money via credit cards. It's made money transfer easy between us common folks, I guess. Certainly made Miss M's Christmas a more Merry one, that's fur sure!! And yes, the above avatar is mine - my pixel pal name is Flash Bazbo - I was the Pixel Delivery Goddess this Christmas! |