Everything is just ducky

posted by jakevest on 1st, 2009

The duck race to benefit the Education Foundation of Lake County is Saturday and because of it, I will have to choose between watching Tennessee play Auburn and playing golf. That probably should make me appreciate the event more, because both of those other options promise little other than heartbreak.

But those are the things I want to do.

The golf, which I will do, will be covered by me…either through begging my way onto some course or by writing a check. It is payback for duck sales. I also will be speaking at half a dozen events I would not have spoken at, had I not obligated myself through accepting a donation to somebody else. I got started on this blog late this morning and I haven’t had the opportunity to blog in a while because I have been doing free artwork for people who made various donations in exchange for a “while you are at it could you do me a picture” projects.

This is not to mention the amount of time it took to send the e-mails soliciting the funds, keeping track of the checks, filling out and keeping track of 500something duck tickets, transporting said tickets to where they needed to be and quite a bit of accounting. Each fruitful e-mail begets half a dozen other e-mails of the “how have you been” and “do you know anybody who is hiring?’ ilk.

On at least a couple of occasions, I will be playing golf with people I don’t want to play golf with…another of those “I’ll give you a check when you come out and join our group…” Unless you have done this, you CANNOT understand the misery of schlumping along with someone who not only keeps his score, but keeps yours. Golf has more rules than the IRS…all I want to do is walk on grass that I don’t personally have to mow.

But I do what I have to do to get it done. I am happy to help. It feels good to do your part.

Here’s the part that bugs me, though. OTHER PEOPLE DON’T!!!!

It just burns me up sometime when I realize that I am walking the same hallways with people who didn’t do a doggoned thing for this charity, don’t owe a single favor, haven’t gone one bit out of their way to help, haven’t disrupted their schedules, haven’t done anything AND will share equally in the benefits.

It is not quite as irritated as I get because draft-dodgers can get a paid holiday for Veterans Day, but it is close.

Of course, there is nothing that can be done about it. It is this very bunch of hopeless and often selfish types that have caused us to need so much charity to begin with. Some of my colleagues who wouldn’t reach into their pockets for anything but a pencil and who will be shopping regularly at the free store for supplies are tooling around in expensive cars and blathering on cell phones that look like they came from the Star Ship Enterprise.

When layoffs were looming last year, a plan was floated that everyone give up a day of personal time and work a day extra without pay. One day of each would save some jobs. I am on the bottom of the list so that would have been my job.

A “colleague” with enough time in to not worry about this not only rejected the proposal, it was done angrily. I believe the words were “I need MY time off to do gardening….I’m sorry, but they (those of us in peril) knew what they were getting into!”

Luckily, I kept my job so I can now raise money to assist in the career of the person who was willign to dump me so she could spend more time with her radishes.

Fortunately, it will also help a bunch of others who are worth helping.

That’s why I am an easy mark when it comes to charity. Through my That’s Jake Charity Golf Tournament in Alabama, which ran 20 years, and a few other events, I have raised about a million bucks for things that needed money. It has always been a pain, but it has always felt good in the end.

I am not saying that we ought to consider abandoning charity because some people who need it don’t deserve it or because there isn’t a lot of charity in a lot of hearts out there. It has to be done.

I just think we ALL really ought to be a little more appreciative of those who git ‘r done.

Look around sometime and you will realize that, especially out here in Lake County, it is the same people over and over again. These are the ones who show up and write the checks and go to the trouble to make good things happen.

If you can’t appreciate them, at least don’t make them suffer extra for it.

At the recent Corporate Spelling Bee, there was a good example of this. A spelling bee has “dull” written all over it unless somebody does something to brighten it up. Dullness can kill an event quicker than anything else.

One of the things that added that extra little bit of cheerfulness that made this seem more like an event than a staff meeting was that people dressed up. The USB team decked itself out in bee costumes, complete with goggle eyes. The Reunion Bank team had dollar sign goggles. I saw Viking horns and propellers with beanies.

I also saw a bunch of people who didn’t do a thing other than showing up. That’s great because they brought their money, which puts them way ahead of the others. But it was the people who dressed up who paid the real tab…they were laughed at, ridiculed and humiliated in a very minor way. This ridicule and humiliation came from the people who didn’t do anything to make it more fun.

It takes guts to do something like that to make an event better. Sometimes you have to put your ego on the line and do something a little silly.

It won’t ever get any better. Some people will never do their part. Most people will never appreciate the part you do and you won’t ever get cut any slack for it.

Oh well. If you did yours, YOU know it. So if you are one of the helper types, one of the ones who wear a costume to the costume party, one of those who answer the phone and write the check and show up for the events, appreciate yourself.

It’s probably the best you are going to get out of it.

But you know what? It’s good enough.