Dare You to Move

Welcome to the planet Welcome to existence Everyone's here Everybody's watching you now Everybody waits for you now What happens next I dare you to move I dare you to move I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor I dare you to move I dare you to move Like today never happened Today never happened before Welcome to the fallout Welcome to resistence The tension is here Between who you are and you could be Between how it is and how it should be Maybe redemption has stories to tell Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell Where can you run to escape from yourself? Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go? Salvation is here Apologies to Switchfoot. It just feels appropriate to use that song here. On my highly conservative alumni mailing list, someone sent out this link, which recounts the actions of one man who left the comfort of his home to help out in Mississippi and New Orleans. God bless him. Thank God for ordinary heroes. Please read it; it's highly recommended. Today I dropped off some supplies and I went to the Armory. I sat on the steps and talked with a lady named Lily who is 24. She is from Carrolton, Louisiana, as she said to a reporter who interviewed her. It's in the greater New Orleans area. She has a 1 year old baby named Tyelle - sorry, I don't know the spelling, and I couldn't bring myself to act like the reporter and get the correct spelling. Lily lived with her sister and her family in New Orleans. Her sister's house had the roof torn off during the hurricane. She, her sister, and family are here. Lily has a brother who was evacuated to South Carolina, but he should be coming up to this area soon. Lily works for Domino's Pizza, and Domino's (like Wal-Mart and several other prominent chains) will try to absorb the workers that evacuated from New Orleans. A church has managed to provide housing, and Lily will be leaving the Armory next week. It was nice to see the amount of DC residents coming to talk to the people. Heck, there were more DCers on the steps than evacuees! That plus a load of media - several reporters were there getting interviews from evacuees. I asked Lily if she thought this was a circus. She marveled at the situation, as she'd never traveled before and so it was okay to her. Lily had received several bags of baby items. One was for a boy; she was going to give that bag to the Red Cross so they could give it to someone else. Here is something wonderful - I saw Project Backpack in action. A little girl named Valerie in 1st Grade (and her parents) sent a wonderful bag full of beautiful baby girl's things, plus baby toiletries. Lily was so excited to see the ruffled socks in the bag, as Tyelle doesn't have any ruffled socks of her own. There were some very nice outfits, some for summer and some long sleeve items for the fall/winter. Valerie and her family made a beautiful handmade card, and it was very sweet. Lily appreciated the cards, and loved them. The family also included some return cards with postage affixed, so that she could write to them. Lily is most definitely going to write back. I don't remember where Valerie and her family are from; I couldn't really see the address on the card, but I believe that they live in Bethesda because they are near the school where the idea originated. I do remember that Valerie knows how to spell Mississippi. Good job, Valerie! You really made someone's day, and mine. Lily also received a lot of other baby things and diaper bags and toys. She won't keep all of it, but she certainly appreciates it. That was the highlight of my day. The only other excitement was that I got some boxes from a gal off Craig's List. They are perfect for my load of books. Boo-freakin'-yaaa. I'm about to go out for a little, to celebrate a friend's birthday. That's it for now. Have a pleasant evening.