Humble Pie, Being Thankful, and Basements of Our Lives

On the day before Thanksgiving in 2008, Texas 
Schmexas didn't exist, but that morning I sent 
this e-mail to my friends and family:

If I had a  blog, I would have posted this today.

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I have a story to tell you. A few weeks ago (yes, a few weeks), I was annoyed to see the Salvation Army bell-ringers had already arrived at our local grocery store. Annoyed? Yes, annoyed. You see, I’m very intentional about Advent, about preparation for Christmas, about not skipping past the waiting and expectation to the joys of the manger scene. So here was a bell-ringer, wishing people “Merry Christmas,” and it wasn’t even Advent. Heck, it wasn’t even Thanksgiving. As I went by, I smiled at the bell-ringer anyway and said in a jovial voice, “It’s not even Advent yet!” (Honest, I was being friendly, friendlier than the folks who go by and pretend not to see or hear the glad tidings of joy being wished to them.) The bell-ringer looked at me, surprised I’d said something. She said, “What?” So I repeated my comment: “It’s not even Advent yet.”

Her response? “Well, people still need to eat.”

Now that’s an extra large serving of humble pie.

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I’ve been thinking about these words today: To those who have been given much, much will be required.

Link with Love

Recently I was reading a friend’s blog and saw what looked like a guitar pick that said “Link with Love” in the sidebar of the site. It’s probably not a guitar pick (you be the judge), but that’s what it looked like to me.

I  must have been wasting time that day because from her blog I ended up on another blog that also had the same guitar pick logo in the sidebar, this time in a different color.

What was that thing? I wondered.

So of course I clicked on it.

I discovered LINKwithlove, a really neat nonprofit.

You should go check out their website on your own, but since I know most of you won’t, here’s the gist of their cause in their own words:

LINKwithlove is the idea that we, the internet, can teach and learn respect when dealing with intellectual property* online. It is our dream that art, music, photography, words, design, ideas, etc – be shared in a way that is ethical, respectful, educated and kind.

As I’ve made clear before, I’m a big respecter of copyrights, so I was thrilled to know that this organization exists. They’re facilitating community in a way I hadn’t ever really envisioned, in a world quick to swipe information from the internet and not credit sources. What’s more, they’re doing it in an aesthetically beautiful manner. As a writer and artist and heck, fellow human being, I resonate with the project.

And so I promptly added their badge to my own side bar.

Because I do “link with love”–and I hope you do, too.

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PS LINKwithlove also has neato free downloadable calendars for your computer’s “wallpaper.”

Update: Share the Love

Don’t forget about the inaugural Texas Schmexas Share-the-Love give-a-way. As only three people have “entered” the contest so far, it isn’t going to be very difficult to win a prize! If any of them tempt you, be sure to join in on the fun in the next four days. (The prize list is here.)

For those of you keeping track, Sheila’s in the lead with 4, followed closely by Gen (3) and Christie (2).

Yes, that means that referring just one person will earn you a prize… Not that I’d mind keeping some of these autographed books to myself, of course.

Share the Love: The First Texas Schmexas Give-Away

I am continually amazed at the strange word-of-mouth (or click-of-Facebook) connections that lead people to Texas Schmexas. Amazed.

And I am thankful–incredibly–to those of you who’ve already shared some Schmexas love with your friends and family by linking to me on Facebook, writing guest blog posts, forwarding e-mails, talking to your friends in Sunday school about Schmexas, and, well, you name it someone’s doing it. I love getting e-mails from you with your stories about community, especially the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend sort of e-mails.

Who knew that one day you would get free stuff for doing the things you’ve been doing all along?

Yes, I said free.

It’s the inaugural Share-the-Love Texas Schmexas Give-Away.