Ice Bucket Summer

As fads go the Ice Bucket Challenge isn't so bad. It started with a guy who has ALS trying to raise money for ALS research. And one thing leads to another, as it always does, the whole world goes crazy trying to perform the feats of bravery. I didn't participate. Not because I don't want to get wet. I don't. And not because I don't want there to be a cure. I do. But because I am still struggling to find a way to pay my own hospital bills and there just isn't money going around for that and all the good causes one would want to send a little cash to. What I did do was observe.

For about two weeks I watched the blooper reels. Then it got to celebrity challenges. Big whoop. Well when it got to my list of faves it got a little more interesting. But it wasn't until Cumberbatch accepted his challenge and then made up for it in typical Cumberbatch style that I realized something. The Ice Bucket challenge had turned into a giant wet t-shirt contest. And the second that it became that it lost all meaning. At least for me.

The good thing for ALS is that before the collective gasp of "OMG what are we doing?" sobered everyone up, the ALS researchers had a few million more than they have ever had before. The bad thing, at least for me personally, is that I have lost a few more degrees of respect for humanity in general and myself personally. The good thing for my boyfriend is that I have a tremendous deal more respect for him than ever before.

He doesn't get suckered into things like the rest of us do. And he doesn't do things without researching the situation himself. He isn't at all as reactionary as the rest of us. I think I need that balance in my life. I am glad someone can bring me back to a center point when I get a little too far to one end of a spectrum or another.

I've done a lot of things this Summer that are new to me, that I haven't done in a while and that I don't usually have someone to do them with. But I didn't have an Ice Bucket Summer.... well not for very long anyway.