Today, I’ll continue introducing you to my training grounds. This is what I call my start’n stump.

But is it a stump? I’ve always thought a stump was the result of a felled tree (envision the end of The Giving Tree perhaps), not a tree falling on its own volition. Anyway, my start’n stump greets me warmly each day where I cross the road to run in Pearson Park. It also bids me a nice evening at the end of my time on the trail. I find it comforting, constant, familiar — just what I need on this very unfamiliar journey.

By the way, if you check out my stats page, you will find that after today’s run I have now travelled just over the distance of a marathon. It feels bitter sweet; in other words, yes, I can run that far, but it took me two weeks to do it!

Uggh! Will I ever accomplish this? Probably not without resting my hump on that stump.

The holiday season is here and spirits are up for most. It’s a time of reflection and giving thanks as they say. But when is the last time you really thought about how you could give back to those who aren’t as fortunate as yourself?

I would like to introduce to you the Runde’s Raising Awareness Series. The goal of this series is to bring awareness to various non-profit organizations around the Tri-State area that provide truly selfless services for those in need of help. These organizations run mainly through donations and volunteer work and are almost always in need of contributions or further assistance.

We ask only one thing if nothing else is gained through this series: that you realize and acknowledge that these good deeds are being done in our very own community. Our first organization is The City of East Dubuque:

 

The Giving Wreath

The City of East Dubuque Giving Tree (Wreath)

Every year The City of East Dubuque puts up a tree (this year they are using a wreath instead of a tree to save on space) loaded with cards that have names of families who are in need of assistance within the East Dubuque community school district. Individuals, families and companies are encouraged to donate to these families for the holidays by providing items the families need to City Hall which will be distributed shortly before Christmas.

To give us some insight into the program Joan Mai, City Treasurer of East Dubuque, did a short question and answer with us:

What a great program the city is offering – giving to those who need it most in our community. Do families sign up for the program or are they sought out?
The families sign up for the program. There are some qualifications families have to meet.

Are there any constant contributors to the program?
The Elks club donates food baskets to every family and Toys for Tots gives us a portion of what they collect to our toy drive. A & T Bent Prop collects money throughout the year and do a fund raising golf outing.

These are some of the items donated to the families in need.

Do sponsors usually give money or an item?
It all depends, some people will drop off clothes and other goods. Some companies will make a monetary contribution and others will take a few family cards off the wreath to sponsor a family.

What kind of items are donated?
All kinds, really. Outfits, coats, toys, baby supplies… We also like to get board games for the family to play together.

When you sponsor a family is there a suggestion of what to get that family?
Yes. The group of cards on the wreath represent a family. The family members are identified on each card as a number to keep confidentiality. Each card has an item or items that each individual in that family needs along with their clothes and shoe sizes, as well as what they wished for this Christmas.

Cards on the Wreath list the items you can donate a family in need.

Can anybody come here to City Hall and pick someone to donate to on the wreath?
Yes, everyone is welcome to help. People can make a donation towards any of the families on the wreath.

Where will the families go to get the goods?
We will be distributing everything at the “old” City Hall building at 303 Sinsinawa Ave.

When do you distribute the donations out to the families?
December 20th, 5 days before Christmas. When the families come they will also be given a food basket for them to enjoy along with the donated items collected from the Giving Tree/Wreath.

If you would like to donate to the City of  East Dubuque giving tree please use the following contact information.

Phone: (815) 747-3416
Email: Jmai@cityofeastdubuque.com
Web: www.cityofeastdubuque.com
Address: 185 Wisconsin Avenue
East Dubuque, Il. 61025

I will be posting the people and business that love to give. The world should watch these people and learn. I will be…..

One company that be supported

http://www.weforest.com/

I’ve heard people cite The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein as an example of environmental children’s literature, but I’m not so sure.  Of course, the boy’s connection with the tree, at least at the beginning of the book, is beautiful — but why oh why does she keep taking him back, regardless of how he abuses her??  (I can’t help but think of the kicked dog who returns to her master with her tail wagging between her legs.)

I’ll admit this book does have one good message: Nature is not infinite.  Even so, that just doesn’t save this book in my eyes.

Ages 4-8.

So for those of you who actually know me (since I have no idea who reads this blog, but the stats are showing some of you are), you will know that I am totally a wanna-be-fashionista.

I would say the characteristics of a wanna-be-fashionista include: Loving fashion, but not enough to necessarily pursue it as a career; Have a fashion sense, but sometimes it is a little off; have a closet full of clothes, but don’t have the budget to fill it with the labels you love; you love high fashion, but don’t have the Rihanna-type confidence to pull it off; and finally having no care about matching brown and black or blue and black (I am personally all for camel and black).

Anyway, I have been exploring my little side passion through Polyvore. I posted a set a while back on this blog, but I have been rapidly creating more and more. It is becoming my obsessive hobby. It is pretty cool because you can enter contests where you win prizes and money. However, the chances of winning aren’t the greatest but who doesn’t love a good competition?

Here are a few I posted just for fun. Seriously I would wear some of this outlandish stuff:

Both little tributes to the 60’s & 70’s and also Janis Joplin.

Here are a few I submitted for contests. One was for Katy Perry & the other was a contest that just had to incorporate leggings:

Oh how I would love to live in a fashion clad city like New York or L.A., but Omaha is helping me with my fix. Some personal favorites around Omaha are Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, GAP, Roots & Wings, Be Yourself & the Giving Tree, along with Stella in downtown Lincoln.

For great vintage inspired pieces check out Bellweather boutique or Scout in Dundee.

Finally, if you have extra cash and want some unique pieces check out Trocadero, or Nouvelle Eve in the Old Market.

Anyway, just wanted to share a great new obsession of mine. I think I will go get a fix of my Polyvore addiction now. Good Night!

There once was rain, but it stopped long ago.

The Earth turned into a dry, cracked, orange desert plain.

The People were bitter.

They had done this.

They destroyed the Earth.

They overcropped it, and did not care.

The Earth did give, but then they took too much.

The Earths rivers and oceans dryed and shriveled up like so many tears drying up after not being able to cry anymore.

The Earth had given all that it possibly could.

Oh, if only the People had known when to stop.

When to take only a little, and give back as much as it takes.

Oh, these lessons we should have learned earlier.

I have to admit it. I never looked at The Giving Tree as offensive or gender biased, not until she brought it up. To me it is a heart-warming book that teaches Children of all ages the joy of sharing and giving without expectation of recompense. You have to have a pretty twisted mind to call this book gender biased or offensive in my opinion

Landry and Devin, guitarist and bassist for Crucifictorious; image courtesy of twolia.com

So, I’ve been devouring Friday Night Lights recently. I’ve got four episodes left of season three, so don’t tell me what awaits the Dillon Panthers and their surrounding small-town Texas community.

I was pleasantly surprised this weekend while watching season three. I didn’t realize that Crucifictorious, a Christian death metal band formed by Dillon High’s Landry Clarke, was getting a new female bass player named Devin Corrigan. A good female bassist who proved a needed asset to the band, no less. 

As an aside, I have now rewatched the season two episodes where my friend Brea played brainy, metal-fan music geek Jean Binnel. Now that I’ve watched almost the entire series thus far and know its larger context, I can say 1) I really like Jean and think I’d be her friend, 2) I want her to make me a power pop metal mix CD, 3) I think her small part might have been one of the best things about a sporadically brilliant but uneven season plagued by network tampering and the writer’s strike, and 4) Landry did her wrong, even if I like the girl with whom he briefly reunited.

Sorry, couldn't resist posting a picture of music geek Jean Binnel; image courtesy of blogcdn.com

I was also stoked that Devin was played by Stephanie Hunt, a back-up singer in T-Bird and the Breaks.

And I thought it was rad that the girl who seemed to be a too-perfect rebound girl for the recently spurned lead singer was actually a newly out lesbian teenager, as she reveals in “Keeping Up Appearances.” While she does kiss Landry before coming out to him, she does so to make sure of her orientation, perhaps suggesting that Landry is the first person to whom she has come out. I was impressed by a) her confidence in identifying herself as a lesbian, as I don’t imagine too many girls I grew up with felt comfortable owning their identity like that at that age in our small Texas town and b) Landry’s maturity about the situation. The episode ended with the band jamming to The Flaming Lips’ “She Don’t Use Jelly,” which Devin sang to Landry earlier to help him with a broken heart.

The next episode for me is “The Giving Tree,” which seems to focus on Crucifictorious’s first gig with Devin. I’m hoping for a good turn-out. I’d be there. My only hope is that we see more of her, hopefully with a girlfriend to boot. I don’t know if she will be appearing in season four, which premieres on DirecTV this Wednesday, much less the rest of season three, but I like her.

So here we are, in the middle of October. It feels like the middle of February out there. Been freezing inside and out since last Thursday, even got out the down coat and fleece boots!  No oil in the tank, so no heat at home. Waiting for delivery.  Can’t wait for it to warm up! (the temp outside is just approaching 50! Hooray!)

Fall is my favorite season, mainly because my birthday ushers in the season as  the first official full day of autumn.  I love watching the spectacular nature show we are fortunate enough to see in this part of the world.  Except that I miss my beautiful old maple tree that fell last winter during a storm.

I miss looking out my bedroom window to be greeted each morning by a blaze of orange, red and yellow.

So instead, I enjoy the trees on the block, but it’s not the same. I really feel our tree gave us so much,  just like Shel Silverstein described in The Giving Tree.  Our tree gave us shade in the summer and cooled off the house.  It gave us privacy.  It gave us our favorite first day of school picture spot.  And it gave us that beautiful technicolor show every fall. (I have to admit that the one thing I don’t miss is the endless supply of leaves to rake…)

It was just about a year ago, on a  stormy, blustery Saturday afternoon.  While dozing on the living room couch  I suddenly woke with a start. I heard a  noise that sounded like a bookshelf crashing.

I called upstairs, saying WHAT WAS THAT?  After a minute, my husband said look outside.

To my horror I saw our tree, split vertically down its middle, with the largest portion resting on the house. It didn’t exactly come crashing down.  It fell as gently as a tree could.  So for that I am very grateful.  There was some slight roof and gutter damage. But it could have been much worse.  We were pretty lucky.  No downed wires, nobody hurt.

Cutting down a tree is not only terribly expensive, it’s a very emotional experience.  I couldn’t bear hearing those tree cutting saws, the grinding machine. It was almost evil.

My house now looks totally naked without it’s mighty tree in front. All that’s left is a stump.

So as we enjoy our first fall without our tree, I realize just how much I do miss it.

Most of us are familiar with the classic Shel Siverstein book The Giving Tree. For those of you who are not, it’s the story of a relationship between a boy and his dear friend who happens to be a tree. As the boy grows older his needs change, and the tree always finds a way to help the boy. When the boy needed money, the tree gave him apples to sell. When the boy needed a house, the tree gave him her branches so he could build a house. And when the boy was old and lonely and wanted to get away, the tree gave him her trunk to build a boat. The tree gave and gave until all that was left of her was a small stump for the old man to rest on.

The relationship between the boy and the tree is much like the relationship that we have with our bodies. When we are born, our bodies have all the components we need to get us through life. It gives and gives to us each day to get us through life. As we get older, our needs, like the boy’s, continually change and we put more and more demands on our body to provide for us. This begs the question, if we are not willing to give back to our bodies, what will we be left with in the long run?

When you put fuel into your body, are you providing it with the appropriate nutrition it needs to grow healthy and strong? Are you giving your body the building blocks for optimal health, or are you casually filling it with calories it cannot functionally use, which in turn becomes detrimental to its overall wellbeing? In order for your body to give to you each day the way it was made to, you need to fill it with the foods that it was actually designed to consume.

Are you taking the time to give your body the physical activity it needs to reduce the overall stress level on the system and keep it physically strong? Do you strengthen your body so that it can in turn be strong for you when you need it to do work for you? If you want your body to withstand the everyday stress you put on it, you have to give back to it through the physical activity it needs.

Do you take the time to build healthy relationships and find things that make you mentally healthy? The body responds to mental stress the same way it does to chemical and physical stress. Are you adding to your overall stress by being in situations that create unhappiness in your life, or do you actively seek to put yourself in jobs, activities, situations and relationships that nourish you.

Our bodies are something that can easily be taken for granted as we get up each day and go about our business, assuming that they will provide for us each day like they have  in the past. Take a moment each day to remember that like the tree, the body is actually giving and giving and giving to us, and it needs a little something in return. It may not need to be a grand gesture, but just think how much our bodies might appreciate it if we just tried to do one thing each day to give back a little. Giving back just may ensure that in the long run, your body may be more like the big beautiful tree in the beginning of the story rather than the stump the boy is left with in the end.

Yours in Health,
Breanna Tivy, D.C.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein read (interpreted) by Brennan Manning

I plan on posting my thoughts on The Giving Tree later (About how I think this relates to God and us…).

..spoken by Shel Silverstein himself. circa ‘73.

Ideas, sound effects and pictures by Stephen Michael King

Roaring Book Press, 2008

No running text in this small book, just the occasional sound effect — the snip, snip of a mother’s eager scissors, the pitter, patter, splot of  a trickling shower. But the gorgeously simple drawings do a fine job of telling the story.

A nameless (and shoeless) boy tries to evade his stylish mother’s desire to groom and cut his unkempt hair. While hiding out with his loyal pup, a bird happens to drop a seed onto the boy’s scalp — a seed which produces a leaf, a leaf which the boy takes tender care of. It outrages me that his mother lops off his hair anyway — I have assured both my children that if they choose to grow any plants on their heads, I will let them remain there as long as they wish — but I suppose without this insensitive mother, we wouldn’t get such a great story. The ending reminds me of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree - but without the misanthropy.

Sullivan apprentice Patrick Appel directs me toward this discussion of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. John Schwenkler, blogging at Upturned Earth, does not like it at all. But Schwenkler (as he often does on his excellent blog) seems to be willing to listen to other perspectives. The post, the links, and the comments are pretty interesting to read. Lots of passionate feelings about it.

Personally, I suspect this sort of thing was Silverstein’s intention. But as I said in the comments over there, I’m not sure what kid would read it and come away thinking that the boy is someone to model him/herself after. It always just depressed the hell out of me.

Schwenkler considers bad children books, and immediately chops down one of the pillars of my childhood:

The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. I guess that this is a pretty common target in these kinds of discussions, but damn is it ever deserved. Tree loves boy. Boy loves tree. Boy grows up. Boy exploits tree. Tree takes it all silently, growing less happy with each lonely year. Boy gets old, tree is a stump, boy sits on tree, no apologies. I mean, I get the point: the tree loves the boy. But heck, even Jesus was able to rise triumphant when all was said and done; couldn’t Silverstein have made the love at least a little more, you know, mutual? (Other questions: Why didn’t the tree’s apples grow back? And how did the boy build himself and his family a house out of branches?)

As sympathetic as my warped communitarian heart is to demands for mutuality, I think that the story’s lack of shared charity is actually its most powerful point.  It seems to me that the story’s complexity comes from the fact that love isn’t always mutual, and it certainly doesn’t guarantee interpersonal justice.  In fact, in some cases it can demand precisely the opposite: that we give until we have nothing left, and that the only compensation we can expect is the satisfaction from having done so. When I try to imagine what it must be like to raise a severely disabled child or deal with an addicted sibling or care for a mentally ill parent, this is the only understanding of love that can suffice… The love that gives until it is spent.

As I’m writing this I see that Millman has written a very insightful post in the same direction, so I won’t spend any words going places he’s already been, but I figure I should also mention this lovely piece by Kyle Cupp on the experience of being a father of an ancephaletic child and his sense of the divine in that struggle.  It’s definitely a better articulation of Silverstein’s take on love than I’m capable of giving, and one that think explains why it remains one of the better children’s books around.

“I don’t need very much now,”
said the boy,
“just a quiet place to sit and rest.
I am very tired.”
“Well,” said the tree,
straightening herself up
as much as she could,
“well, an old stump is good
for sitting and resting.
Come, Boy, sit down.
Sit down and rest.”

And the boy did.

Shel Silverstein The Giving Tree