Okay, just wanna ask you guys to give me a little bit of slack here because it’s not going to be easy to say this. But I have to.
Right now I’m watching the replay of American Idol: Idol Gives Back, a 2-hour special AI show dedicated to charity. It’s wonderful watching the show, and I often remarked that it’s good that American Idol is giving back after the phenomenal success it enjoyed in its last 6 seasons so far. The show itself is star-studded. And okay, people who know me well could tell you that I couldn’t care less if every celebrity in Hollywood participated in the show – if there’s one thing that I’m not, it’s star-struck. But I did love how different personalities with contrasting backgrounds got together for one noble common cause. Like, can you imagine Bono, Jack Black, Josh Groban, Ewan McGregor, Seal, Celine Dion, Homer Simpson (yeah, really), Annie Lennox, Rob Lowe and Madonna in one show? Okay, you probably could, but it still doesn’t happen much.
The program was touching and at times, heart-wrenching, and only someone with a certified heart of granite (like someone I know) wouldn’t be moved by all those stories of children and HIV-positive folks who desperately need our help. Ellen Degenres put it best. “This is ridiculous. We should do something.” And yeah, I agree. I wish there was some way I could do to help.
Hehe, wishing for ways to help poor African HIV-positive kids when I had the chance to do the exact same thing with our local homeless children… and I didn’t.
I’m talking about the Christmas program SVI prepared for orphan kids in place of the company Christmas party. I still remember the argument with Hana because I wanted to hold a Christmas party for the staff, insisting that ‘charity work is good and all, but the Christmas party is supposedly the reward for us employees for toiling hard the entire year. We deserve to have that party, why give it to someone else?’
Why give it to someone else? It’s like asking why give to Gawad Kalinga that 50 pesos you were reserving for a strawberry milkshake.
Now that I think about it, I want to hit myself on the head with a hammer.
Especially when recalling how much fun the SVI volunteers had in participating in the activity. I wanted a party for the employees? Well, making orphaned kids happy – even for only a few hours – rates on the fun meter just as much as any other party. And it’s more worthwhile because we get to help people.
Well, since the charity event won out over a clubhouse party, in the end I did decide to acquiesce and volunteer to help out too, if at least to make myself less of an ass. But it would have meant something if I’d actually made it
