What we want and what we need

Nov. 23, 2005

My wife runs a home day care and periodically she buys new toys when the old ones wear out. As you can probably guess, the thing the kids love most is playing with the boxes that the toys come in. But in time, those boxes fall apart and the big, shiny toys have their day.
Yet it wouldn’t surprise me if the kids would just as soon keep playing with the boxes if they would only last. There’s something about crawling through a big box and imagining all of the fanciful critters, worlds and situations inside that captures a child’s imagination. It’s a box, after all, that the kids stroll through in the upcoming film, “Narnia,” to find a magical world.
It makes you think about the difference between what you want and what you really need. A child wants a toy, but what he or she really needs is the thrill of imagination. You may want a new iPod for the holidays, but what you really need is the love of your friends and family -- a no-brainer.
Gift-giving has dwindled through the years in our family. The older you get, the harder it becomes to think of something you want, since we Americans tend to acquire most of the goodies on the Wheel of Fortune if given enough time. Then too, members of our family have passed on or grown up, or hinted that they’d like to be freed from the obligation of playing tit-for-tat on the gift-giving merry-go-round.
In my own case, I still want to give Christmas gifts this season and wouldn’t mind getting a few in return. But what I need to do this holiday season is another thing.
You know the old, insincere clichè about the person who claims to want peace on earth as a Christmas gift? If ever there was a year to take that idea to heart, it’s this one.
What a year it has been: the tsunami which killed more than 210,000 in the Indian Ocean last January. Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, leaving tens of thousands of Americans homeless. The earthquake in Pakistan crushed more than 86,000 persons to death, and even now people are shivering, starving, wounded and homeless up in the mountains. The 2,000 American deaths in Iraq, with 20,000 of our young people wounded -- many horribly maimed for life -- and an estimated 30,000 Iraqis killed...
What a year. Those are all still open wounds, in need of our help.
Closer to home, there are said to be some 591 homeless persons living in the five-county Grand Traverse area; it wouldn’t come as a surprise if there were a similar number spread through the remaining eight counties where the Express is distributed. Interviews with 50 homeless persons conducted by Team Outreach of the TC Human Rights Commission found that:
• 40% were on the streets due to a lack of affordable housing and a loss of income.
• 45% were sleeping on the streets that night.
You could go on at length, cataloging the world’s ills, but the point is there’s a time to talk and a time for action. This year, that might mean putting your first dollar ever in a Salvation Army bucket, or volunteering to ring a bell. It might mean contributing to the new Homeless Shelter at Goodwill Industries, or writing a check to UNICEF or the Red Cross. It could mean extending a little of that famed Christian charity to the Muslim wretches starving in the ruins of Kashmir, or brightening the Christmas of a family who lost their home to Katrina. It might mean shaving that most-likely-unwanted pair of socks off your Christmas list to write a check to World Vision instead.
A cathedral is built brick-by-brick, and the same is true of rebuilding the wreckage of the past year. Although no individual has the ability to take on all of the awful events that transpired in the world, it‘s still true that we can make a difference by each doing our little bit. It‘s what we need to do

Historic Goal

A group called the Citizens of Old Mission Peninsula hope to save a state treasure: the first frame house north of Grand Rapids. Rev. Peter Dougherty built the house in 1842, which sits on 15 acres of orchards at 18459 Mission Road.
Dougherty was a Presbyterian minister and Princeton graduate who was the first European settler in the region. Besides building the first frame home north of Grand Rapids, which remains in good condition, Dougherty established a thriving community in Old Mission by working with local Native Americans.

To preserve the historic site, Fred Woodruff and Mack Beers are co-chairing the campaign committee, with a goal to raise the $600,000 needed to purchase the home and its surrounding 15 acres by December 31, 2005. The goal of the campaign is to create an educational and cultural center in the home that would display the history of the area from a Native American village to the present day community. Additionally, the 15 acres would be preserved as open space.

The Dougherty Fund has been created at the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation. To date, more than $278,000 has been raised. Serving as honorary co-chairperson of the campaign committee is former State Sen. George McManus, along with Nancy Rushmore Hooper, whose family ancestors purchased the home from Peter Dougherty and occupied it for more than 100 years. To make a contribution, contact the foundation at (231) 935-4066.