Thoughts on the latest fad
The ALS ice bucket challenge makes me long for the days when I'd get chain emails stating that, oh, something like "your favorite grandparent will fall down 3 flights of stairs if you don't forward this to 7 people immediately RIGHT NOW!!" It was so easy to delete the email and lie about it. And not just because all my grandparents had passed on by that point.
I was talking to some young doctors I know—a married couple—and I stated this (after 2 beers, mind): "I think ALS sucks, I know someone who died from it, but I'm not going to dump ice on my head." They laughed. The wife pointed out that she was working in a trauma unit and she was thinking, "Gee, ALS affects so few people. Why don't we do something for these folks?"
I noted that if you say anything like this publicly then you're Hitler. They both agreed.
I did see a piece of useful advice on a friend's Facebook page: "Remember guys, don't donate to ALSA unless you support embryonic stem cell research. Donate to something like Mayo Clinic or MSCTC." He posted this along with a great video of himself pouring a whole teaspoon of cold water onto his head. It looked grueling. Well, hey, he's a Catholic, not a Baptist! So if I do it I'm going to use a whole tablespoon just to show how serious I am about wiping out a horrific disease.
Hear hear. Just another instance of hashtag activism, with a publicity stunt angle to boot.
ReplyDeleteThe only video that made me smile is the one with America's Sweetheart (no, not Verlander). As the poster says, "The queen stays the queen."
P.S. I challenge Keith to spill his water glass in his lap like I accidentally did at lunch.
I accepted your challenge and prevailed, re-enacting Jennifer Beals' chair scene from Flashdance with a cold Heineken.
DeleteMy pastor had a cooler of ice water dumped on him after the last morning Mass yesterday. He was also donating to a Catholic medical charity (which, I dunno, maybe works with ALS patients). He challenged our senior priest, for whom he was once a parochial vicar.
ReplyDeleteI may suggests to the old Monsignor that he use a teaspoon, since he's Catholic. I'd think he'd very much appreciate the suggestion.
Taking nothing from their reverences, this whole challenge seems ideal for our culture. Take a video of yourself doing something noble!
(Though I do like Patrick Stewart's video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkO4NIqAMss)
I did feel for a guy I saw in a video, whose grandmother and mother both had ALS, and he'd just been diagnosed at 26. The mom's symptoms may have been exaggerated (like Michael J. Fox going off his meds before a pitch for more research $), but it looked like she couldn't do much of anything for herself anymore, and that would be a difficult way to live. However, the guy lost me when he cried out about greedy pharmaceutical companies and how they won't work harder on medications because they want to make a profit. As Mr. BTEG asked, when did people forget that a company's existance is to make a profit? Or does he want research scientists to work for free?
ReplyDeleteOTOH, I did shake my head at the folks whose biggest concern was how evil people are for wasting water. Water mostly going back into the ground and starting the water cycle again.
I did shake my head at the folks whose biggest concern was how evil people are for wasting water.
ReplyDeleteOh, man, well that's just idiotic. Also an ice cube might fall on an innocent bug and freeze it to death instantly and that would be an epic tragedy.
The whole thing is mildly irritating to me because it's like watching a bunch of people who just discovered charity. Plus -- isn't this a bit like "sounding a trumpet" (ref. Matt. 6:2)?
Again... call me "Hitler" for criticizing this wonderful craze.
DeleteOK, now it's getting stupid.
DeleteAnd now people are doing boiling water -- or pretending to.
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