Stop
Building
Future
Ghost
Towns. 

Continuation of a thought.

Part 1:
This is one of those things we read about every day, right? It’s the age of universal social consciousness. We’re bombarded daily with messages that seem to reinforce the paradox of easy information; as we learn more about those who need our help  we seem to grow more helpless ourselves under the sheer weight of our knowledge. I do at least. Just today I learned that if one family in one of every three churches in America adopted a single American orphan there would be no orphans in America at all. Heavy, right?

So, what are we supposed to do? Move to Africa or turn off the radio?

Part 2:

The vision of Water is Basic is to see a well drilled in every village in Sudan. Funds have been raised to purchase the necessary equipment to drill water wells–drilling rigs, piping, trucks to carry the equipment, etc. Sudanese nationals have been trained to drill, operate and repair their own water wells, empowering them to impact and sustain their communities. As the Sudanese work to provide the basic need of clean water, they see the health of their people transformed through a reduction in disease and death.

This is one of my favorite projects. You can read more about the organization here and view their flickr photo stream here.

I sit here here at my computer and nod my head in approval at what these people are doing for real, and then I feel ashamed.

I need to start having more than good intentions.

I think I’m going to abandon my iPod in favor of a Walkman. There was nothing like the whir of a tape player and the click of a button to remind you that sometimes the listening to music takes some work. Patience, strategy, and care are required when you don’t have the convenience of “auto shuffle” or even “advance track” buttons. The album and mix tape as ideas in their most concrete form kind of died with the CD player and I’m ready to bring those back a little bit for myself. I think I’ll be okay if i don’t have a month’s worth of music at my fingertips all the time. Convenience breeds disillusionment and all that.

We’ll see if this idea works out.