Max Auburn And His Day At The Storefront
November 16, 2018
This is a fictional
narrative and the characters, places, and character events are a work
of fiction. With that mentioned, real events and occurring's are used in a
fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual personal events is purely coincidental.
I'm a firm believer
in giving back. It's displays the community spirit. The need to
contribute to the community has resulted in me occasionally partaking in
Christmas drives for organizations.
One becomes a active participant to raising money at various locations throughout the community for the whole day. This is for the Christmas fundraiser to help the needy. I was raising money at a storefront. Location is irrelevant as all experiences that the fundraiser witnesses are the same. Doesn't matter if it's Dallas, Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles. Regardless of location, one experiences highs and lows and absurdities along the way.
What are these absurdities that I'm talking about. Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays for starters. One wonders how this tripe even became a thing. Of all things that warrant attention, why this? Poverty, gun violence, education, income inequality, and yet; this is the rubbish that's getting all the attention during this time of year!?
For many people, it's the time when they're just doing general-purpose shopping, nothing more. There are shoppers for various religious backgrounds; Atheist, Muslims, Buddhist, Hindu, Agnostic, along with Christians. For others, it's just a another typical workday, nothing more. For me, Christmas starts on December 24th and ends on the 26th. All the days leading up to the 24th are just work days that are related to the Christmas program.
However, during this time of year, some are known to become mental though. Many embrace Kirk Cameron's mentality of forcing "Merry Christmas" down people's throats. For those demanding to "put Christ back in Christmas", my response would be "If your Christian, then Christ is already in Christmas" as a way of diffusing the overused cliché. I was talking about this subject to my friend Jackson when I visited him in Austin. He thought that this was absurd rubbish as well. Some will demand either only one or the other. As Jackson proudly proclaimed, those that demand a secular-only "Happy Holidays" can go straight to hell, and those that demand only "Merry Christmas" can join them as well.
Years back, I would occasionally say "Happy Holiday", and some of those that heard it threaten to tear out my intestines and use it as a jump rope. If anything, I'm thinking that saying "Happy Holidays" would become a crime as the angry, fundamentalist police are displaying there show of force. Again, are there topics that are more ummm... important to talk about?
There is nothing wrong with either saying. The Holidays means different things to different people. This wouldn't even be a issue if people got off there high-horse and stop being self-righteous.
Now don't get me wrong, this didn't happen often, and situations like this is a rarity. On the whole, it's very pleasant being outside in of the storefront raising money for a worthy cause an giving back to the community. It's awesome when one sees children donate as well. It's even nicer when it's pleasant outside with the temperatures are in the high 60's. Nothing beats that. Sometimes, things do get very slow. Sometimes, it's awhile before one sees any people at all.
Sometimes, my feathered friends come and join me. A grackle or pigeon flies down and tip there heads up, looking at me. I break a piece of from a cookie and toss it where the birds are at. There examining the morsel with great intent, and then proceed with grabbing it with there beaks and fly away to that unknown place on top of a building or parking lot that's not within eye-shot.
Interacting with people is important. If one is a people's person, then they will be able to raise a lot of money. People like that. Acknowledging there existence with the following; "Good Morning", "Good Afternoon", "Nice Day Today", "Have A Great Day Today", the Christmas Greetings, will put a smile on the faces of many.
Playful banter and jokes helps though. On a cool day, one could respond with "Enjoying outdoor air-conditioning", or if opening a door, respond if "I'm your automatic door for today!". One has to be very careful though, as this pigeon realized. During the holidays for the past few years, I would jokingly state that "People use this as a excuse to give away there change", or variations of it. This saying has been used for many moons now. People get a cheerful kick out of it. However, this saying can get misinterpreted and misconstrued.
On this day of November 16, in the year of our Musk 2018, someone got offended by this use use of playful banter. She was offended, stating that by saying that, it makes it appear as I'm not appreciative of pocket change. This is absurd in that during the Holidays, I always stress the importance of pocket change to the other fundraisers. This is the equivalent of calling out a Starbucks Hipster as a Neo-Fascist Klansman. One fundraiser can be viewed as both Mother Theresa and Adolf Hitler simultaneously on the same day.
However, a situation like this demands that humility needs to be exercised, even when there is a probability that the one exercising it didn't do anything wrong. Embracing humility at the time, and to defuse the situation, I quickly apologized, and we went our separate ways. Maintaining good Karma is important.
I can actually understand the misinterpretation though. It would be fair to say that there was egg on both our faces. Egg on her face because she misunderstood the playful context, and egg on my face as my self-esteem took a beating afterwards. There would be self-doubt afterwards as the fundraising at store-front continued. This would continue into the next hour. The awesome thing though is that my self-esteem doesn't need much time to recover, and after that hour, I was kicking butt again, figuratively speaking.
My feathered comrades joined me as well. I threw out some more cookie chips out, to the delight of my fellow avians, which they stalked with great detailed, before making there move. They flew into the sunset afterwards. Some bird enthusiast talked to me as well, and we talked about the recent bird show in town. Sometimes, when I saw a employee moving a piece of furniture on a dolly, I would grab the door open. We employees are comrades as well.
Children would donate with a smile on there face. Obviously, adults gave too, with very important pocket change in all. Normally one would think that it's irrelevant to point out if people donated pocket change, but again, when there is a possibility for potential misinterpretation, this fact should be highlighted to cover my bases.
The rest of the day went very well. Came home where my feat were sore. I might use my toe-nail clippers to remove the callus that's forming. I have a few cuts on my hand which for the lift of me, I don't know where they came from. It was a very exhausting day, with its ups and downs. With that said, it's now time for this pigeon to rest.
One becomes a active participant to raising money at various locations throughout the community for the whole day. This is for the Christmas fundraiser to help the needy. I was raising money at a storefront. Location is irrelevant as all experiences that the fundraiser witnesses are the same. Doesn't matter if it's Dallas, Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles. Regardless of location, one experiences highs and lows and absurdities along the way.
What are these absurdities that I'm talking about. Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays for starters. One wonders how this tripe even became a thing. Of all things that warrant attention, why this? Poverty, gun violence, education, income inequality, and yet; this is the rubbish that's getting all the attention during this time of year!?
For many people, it's the time when they're just doing general-purpose shopping, nothing more. There are shoppers for various religious backgrounds; Atheist, Muslims, Buddhist, Hindu, Agnostic, along with Christians. For others, it's just a another typical workday, nothing more. For me, Christmas starts on December 24th and ends on the 26th. All the days leading up to the 24th are just work days that are related to the Christmas program.
However, during this time of year, some are known to become mental though. Many embrace Kirk Cameron's mentality of forcing "Merry Christmas" down people's throats. For those demanding to "put Christ back in Christmas", my response would be "If your Christian, then Christ is already in Christmas" as a way of diffusing the overused cliché. I was talking about this subject to my friend Jackson when I visited him in Austin. He thought that this was absurd rubbish as well. Some will demand either only one or the other. As Jackson proudly proclaimed, those that demand a secular-only "Happy Holidays" can go straight to hell, and those that demand only "Merry Christmas" can join them as well.
Years back, I would occasionally say "Happy Holiday", and some of those that heard it threaten to tear out my intestines and use it as a jump rope. If anything, I'm thinking that saying "Happy Holidays" would become a crime as the angry, fundamentalist police are displaying there show of force. Again, are there topics that are more ummm... important to talk about?
There is nothing wrong with either saying. The Holidays means different things to different people. This wouldn't even be a issue if people got off there high-horse and stop being self-righteous.
Now don't get me wrong, this didn't happen often, and situations like this is a rarity. On the whole, it's very pleasant being outside in of the storefront raising money for a worthy cause an giving back to the community. It's awesome when one sees children donate as well. It's even nicer when it's pleasant outside with the temperatures are in the high 60's. Nothing beats that. Sometimes, things do get very slow. Sometimes, it's awhile before one sees any people at all.
Sometimes, my feathered friends come and join me. A grackle or pigeon flies down and tip there heads up, looking at me. I break a piece of from a cookie and toss it where the birds are at. There examining the morsel with great intent, and then proceed with grabbing it with there beaks and fly away to that unknown place on top of a building or parking lot that's not within eye-shot.
Interacting with people is important. If one is a people's person, then they will be able to raise a lot of money. People like that. Acknowledging there existence with the following; "Good Morning", "Good Afternoon", "Nice Day Today", "Have A Great Day Today", the Christmas Greetings, will put a smile on the faces of many.
Playful banter and jokes helps though. On a cool day, one could respond with "Enjoying outdoor air-conditioning", or if opening a door, respond if "I'm your automatic door for today!". One has to be very careful though, as this pigeon realized. During the holidays for the past few years, I would jokingly state that "People use this as a excuse to give away there change", or variations of it. This saying has been used for many moons now. People get a cheerful kick out of it. However, this saying can get misinterpreted and misconstrued.
On this day of November 16, in the year of our Musk 2018, someone got offended by this use use of playful banter. She was offended, stating that by saying that, it makes it appear as I'm not appreciative of pocket change. This is absurd in that during the Holidays, I always stress the importance of pocket change to the other fundraisers. This is the equivalent of calling out a Starbucks Hipster as a Neo-Fascist Klansman. One fundraiser can be viewed as both Mother Theresa and Adolf Hitler simultaneously on the same day.
However, a situation like this demands that humility needs to be exercised, even when there is a probability that the one exercising it didn't do anything wrong. Embracing humility at the time, and to defuse the situation, I quickly apologized, and we went our separate ways. Maintaining good Karma is important.
I can actually understand the misinterpretation though. It would be fair to say that there was egg on both our faces. Egg on her face because she misunderstood the playful context, and egg on my face as my self-esteem took a beating afterwards. There would be self-doubt afterwards as the fundraising at store-front continued. This would continue into the next hour. The awesome thing though is that my self-esteem doesn't need much time to recover, and after that hour, I was kicking butt again, figuratively speaking.
My feathered comrades joined me as well. I threw out some more cookie chips out, to the delight of my fellow avians, which they stalked with great detailed, before making there move. They flew into the sunset afterwards. Some bird enthusiast talked to me as well, and we talked about the recent bird show in town. Sometimes, when I saw a employee moving a piece of furniture on a dolly, I would grab the door open. We employees are comrades as well.
Children would donate with a smile on there face. Obviously, adults gave too, with very important pocket change in all. Normally one would think that it's irrelevant to point out if people donated pocket change, but again, when there is a possibility for potential misinterpretation, this fact should be highlighted to cover my bases.
The rest of the day went very well. Came home where my feat were sore. I might use my toe-nail clippers to remove the callus that's forming. I have a few cuts on my hand which for the lift of me, I don't know where they came from. It was a very exhausting day, with its ups and downs. With that said, it's now time for this pigeon to rest.
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