Alms For The Charitable

I try to make a habit of donating small amounts of money to various favored charities, but because I spread the love far and wide, over the years, I have ended up on far too many mailing lists - American Red Cross, Covenant House, United States Mission, Archaeological Conservancy, Catholic Relief Services (and I'm not even Catholic), March of Dimes - on and on the lists roll, and because I hate tossing funding appeals in the trash, the letters accumulate. I had several barrels were stuffed with mail, and drawers stuffed with mail, and bags stuffed with mail - Macular Degeneration Research, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Center for Biological Diversity, Paralyzed Veterans of America - everywhere, everywhere! Indian Tribes, foreign missions, obscure fauna, strange diseases - I suppose it occupies the same space that sweepstake entries do for bored Reader's Digest readers.

In any event, this weekend, I assembled just about all the unopened appeals that accumulated for the last three years and tossed them out.....