Saturday, November 17, 2007

C'est trop tard pour rigoler.

9/22/04

Tori-

This book rescued me. I hope you will read it - ideally aloud with your lover. There's a certain voice offered within the prose that feels, for me, unmistakably familiar as yours. The lyricism and [erased] vision is breathtaking. Please share it with me. I feel you all around me. It's a blessing. I will not be defined by this. I will use time to refine myself. Then I will come home and dance and sing. I will love and celebrate. I honor you.

Always,
Fred.

-The inscription inside my used copy of Michael Cunningham's The Hours.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

A little sanity in the situation...

If you've spoken to me at all in the past three months you're aware that I've had my doubts about this big, dirty, noisy city. One of my major issues with living here is that I'm a wuss when it comes to seeing people (or animals) in pain. Between seeing a dog getting beaten with a shovel and watching the homeless people in Farragut Square dig through the trashcans everyday at lunch, it's not always an idyllic paradise. It's no exaggeration to say that if you leave your house at all you will see people who need a lot of serious help, because there are over 12,000 people who live on the DC streets. But the thing is, I'm just watching these things and at the end of the day, I go home.

I'm a poor shlub and not much of a hero, but I feel like there's got to be something I can do, even if it doesn't help with that everyday, day to day interaction where I have to look in someone's face and admit there isn't much I can do to help them.

So Tim and I have decided to walk in the Fannie Mae Foundation's Help the Homeless Walkathon on November 17th. If you're interested in helping the homeless families and individuals in the DC area (and by extension, my sanity) please click here to make a donation. I really appreciate anything you're willing to give, and there are a lot of others who appreciate it too.

If you're interested in learning more, you can visit www.helpthehomelessdc.org. Thanks for reading my whole spiel. For real.