“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Who said that? I don’t know. Does it matter? Maybe, if the person was a convicted felon. But no – seriously – isn’t this a great thought?
For those of you who don’t know, I Tweet, or Twitter, or whatever the verb form is that describes the act of tossing inane, 140-characters-or-less thoughts out into the wild blue Internet. And along with Tweet-ing, or Twitter-ing (or whatever the gerund form is – wait, is that a gerund? Screw it) comes getting an occasional “retweet” (“RT” in Twitterese) in one’s newsfeed. Like, someone sees something else funny that someone else said, so they share it with a bunch of other people, et cetera…et cetera…et cetera.
This morning, something from EdwardNorton (yup, pretty sure it’s that Edward Norton) popped up on my home page:
EdwardNorton: A friend just wrote: “4 yr old kid needs bone marrow transplant — a tough match. It could be you. Consider RT: http://www.matchdevan.com/
Now, joining the National Marrow Donor Program (click here!) is something that I think maybe perhaps I half-assedly thought about before, but for some reason – blame the coffee, blame the Benadryl high from which I’m just now coming down – I clicked the link. And read about Devan. And read about the registry.
This link-clicking begat more link-clicking, and before I knew it, I was filling out a form to request a donor kit. And yes: it’s that damn easy. One (should) thoroughly reads up on the process (everything is very user-friendly and laid out clearly on the site), then fills out a very basic form that includes a health questionnaire, and they send one a kit so that one can take one’s own cheek swabs and send it back in to be typed.
The point of all this is HERE: Do it. I mean, come on! Just do it. If you are able, do it. I hate to get all rabid-militant on y’all, but if you are in good health and meet the requirements, there’s no good reason NOT to.
I’m the first to admit that I get almost angry when I talk to folks who don’t donate blood “because they don’t like needles.” My response to them is usually something like “Well, I bet the dying mother-of-three or the hemorrhaging two-year-old doesn’t like needles either, you selfish douchebag!”* And I understand that a marrow or PBSC donation is more “invasive,” but… come on. Needle-phobias aside (and thoroughly discounted; this is what they invented Xanax for, people), I honestly can’t think of a good reason NOT to sign up with the registry (religious teachings aside, I suppose, but I personally do not know anyone who subscribes to those particular beliefs).
Am I being vehemently one-sided? Yup, probably. It’s the cable-news-network-watcher in me, I guess. But the rational side of my brain finds the act of donating completely and totally…logical. There’s very little emotion factoring into my argument; I know very, very few folks who have needed blood transfusions, even fewer who have undergone a bone marrow transplant, and approximately zero who have had an organ transplant (knock on wood).
It. Just. Makes. Sense.
Be the change.
Be the Match.
*Not really exaggerating here.
the sloppy copy 