It was good

Last night we had our annual 'ring the bells for the Salvation Army' evening at one of the local malls. This started out as a departmental thing and has evolved into a small group of us who enjoy doing it and do it every year. SWMBO and I usually go together with out Santa and Elf hats and ring bells, make eye contact, smile at people, chat with them, and generally make them feel good about Christmas. It's not a matter of making lots of $ for the Sally Ann, though we try to encourage donations, but what better place to try to make people feel a touch of true Christmas warmth but the sterile consumer-driven false Christmas spirit of a shopping mall? We're sincere in our thanks and our wishes for people to have a Happy and Blessed Christmas. We're also really fairly high energy and try to engage the shoppers with some sort of communication. I'm not being critical, but how enthused about helpind the SA is a person when all you see is a person sitting on a chair, ringing bells in a desultory manner, who doesn't even make eye contact with you? Some people are better than others and SWMBO and I are a couple of the higher energy types. It's our idiom...

This year SWMBO wasn't able to be there because of work, so I'm did it myself. It was ok, but not as much fun as when we're both there. It's the small kind of thing that gives you a feeling of Christmas warmth yourself as long as you're able to block out the mall...