Category: General

One Can Down

Brian FullfordLeave a comment

One can filled: new can in progress. I have a photo of Chris’ 3 cans that I will share soon. Matt Lemine told me he filled one before he left to FSU and I know another friend is working his in secret (though I believe he is using mason jars). Thanks to everyone who is redefining the can or simply expanding its function.

Some reminders for you:

1. Would love any stories so I can pen them, or rather type them up for the site.
2. Volunteer activity or donation opportunities…let us have them.
3. Boxtops for education: I will come and get them. Don’t throw them away.
4. Fitness opportunities are coming up. Keep your schedule open for the Be Her Freedom Run.
5. Help someone grow something.
6. Have a favorite outdoor activity or place to get away (trail, water, hill, business, etc) let us know.

Don’t assume someone else is getting it done. We don’t have to be original, just an effective part of the collective.

Garbage Day

Brian FullfordLeave a comment

Over the past three days I attended two showings of a musical called Back in the Boondocks. It was put on by the CrossRoad UMC Arts Academy. The premise of the story is that of a family living in Louisiana. It details their struggles with relationships, alcoholism, friendship, death and faith. Musically the backdrop is solely Country with songs by the likes of Miranda Lambert (Kerosene), Joe Nichols (The Shape I’m In), The Band Perry (If I Die Young), Craig Morgan (Bonfire) and Little Big Town (Boondocks).

As someone who is not a big Country Music fan (yet I feel I am becoming a very selective one as each day passes), and a seasoned agnostic, the existential message disclosed by the production was something to which anyone could relate. For me it was summed up simply as this: we should not be looking for happiness, we should be looking for peace. This production was sharing how that could be found in Christianity and the crowds who I saw it with grasped that to thunderous applause. I saw the message as expanding beyond any one faith or belief system. Encountering, as well all surely have, individuals who do not hold the same life view as we and he who are at peace it serves not to remind us that we are necessarily wrong in our beliefs but that maybe we have gotten a bit off track.

There is one character who loses her farm after her brother signs it over to her seemingly ex-husband in good faith. Then there is that same brother who struggles with returning to Nashville in an effort to revive a successful singing career which he walked away from when his wife died in a tour bus accident. Amidst the messages of forgiveness and repentance I was more hit by the problem of attachment. Of holding on too tightly to something for fear of being without it. Such a crime assumes that beyond the now is not any better. How can we be so arrogant and naive?

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Do Not Waste the Opportunity: Boxtops

Brian FullfordLeave a comment

Boxtops4Education is an easy way to help your local schools. This effort serves to allow schools to obtain resources through basic consumer purchases. It may not be a component of your decision as you go to and from the local grocer or other establishment but if deciding between two items why not purchase the one that can give beyond the purchase itself?

And what if you are already buying items with boxtops: why would you throw them away?

I would like to offer my services to you. If you live in the Jacksonville area I will pick them up. Simply cut them off the product package and store them in a convenient place. Monthly or bi-monthly I will swing buy and take them off your hands.

Live out of state? Mail them to me once a month and I will refund your postage?

It might require a small behavioral change being that packages will need to be inspected prior to tossing them (and they are going in the recycle bin if appropriate, right?) but once you become accustomed to it  you will do it without thinking.

Contact me with any questions and pass along this offer. It is such an easy way to improve the life of children and hopefully play a role in building a better educational system.