Bracelets, Baubles and Other Trinkets

Sorry I have been slow to post lately.....lots of hours at work and lots of work at home. It won't happen again....today anyway;)

I have noticed a lot of people wearing these bracelet things lately. You know the ones...."Live Strong", "Hope", "Freedom". And quite frankly, I hate 'em. I don't hate the concepts, mind you. Living strong and being hopeful are certainly admirable and freedom is something I don't take lightly. I think that may be why I have a problem with these bracelets. It's the same problem I have with the ribbon craze....you know the red ones for aids, the pink ones for breast cancer, the yellow ones to show support for our troops.

Now before you all get in a tizzy, let me explain myself......it all started off with a cross.

I am a Christian. Anyone that knows me knows this. I have one cross. It is the one that Grover gave me a long time ago. It belonged to his dad and I was quite moved that he gave it me because he and his father were very close. It means a lot to me. I don't wear it very often, however, mainly because I 'm kinda tough on jewelry and I don't want to accidentally break the chain. I also don't find it necessary to wear it all the time because I don't need a piece of jewelry to advertise what I am. Talk to me long enough and you will find out what I am and what I am about. (Not to mention there are plenty of people who wear crosses all the time and the word "God" never escapes their lips unless it is in the middle of a curse word....but that's another story for another day.) Christianity is my lifestyle. It is about who I am, not what I wear. It is not about paraphenalia.

Same thing goes with the bracelets. You wanna live strong? Then do it. You wanna be hopeful and fight for freedom? Then do it. Don't advertise it. Don't fall into these ridiculous trends just because you want to appear fashionable and cover it with a label of social consciousness.

Ribbons? Do I support aids research? I most certainly do. I have a couple of friends who have died from this disease and I have seen the absolute horror of it. Breast cancer research. Yes I support that as well. Our military? I wholeheartedly support our armed forces. I may not agree with this particular war, but I certainly support the men and women who are fighting it for us.

See, the thing is....when I say I support something......that's what I do. I donate money and time to aids research, breast cancer research, the homeless, the hungry, the abused. I don't, however, walk around with some pointless accessory to let everyone else know about it before they even speak to me. Trust me, talk to me for 5 minutes and you will know what I support and what I don't.

The Bible says that when you do something for someone, do it in private. Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back for it and don't make a big production of it. See, it's not really the rest of the world at large's business what you are doing for someone else. As long as you know it and God knows it, that's all that really matters.

And I don't think that something as important as aids, breast cancer, the abused, the homeless, the hungry, the impoverished and so on and so forth should be reduced to a trinket. That in and of itself is absolutely insulting to me.

If people would take the money that they spend on these bracelets, ribbons and 0ther baubles and actually donate it directly to the charity of their choice, then maybe they would actually start BEING socially concious instead of just looking like they are.

Peace allllll............