This is not news.

Peas are taking over twitter.com. A large group of users on Twitter currently have images of peas somewhere in their profile pic. And unless you know what’s going on you’d probably be caught off guard by the presumed legume-loving crowd therein.

In fact, the peas are there as a sign of solidarity. They are to support one twitter user, Susan Reynolds, who today will undergo surgery and have a breast removed. In short, she has used a bag of frozen peas to ease the pain associated with her breast cancer diagnosis. In more ways than one. She’s posted a bit to her blog this morning.

I’m about to lose it right now as I type. The fact that hundreds of social network geeks like me would take the time to edit their online identity in support of someone they’ve never met in real life is overwhelmingly cool to me. See the cumulative effect on Susan’s twitter page here. Spontaneous support blogs and fund-raising efforts have kicked into gear–all in the short span of time since December 5 when Susan decided she might need to see a doctor.

But, like I said, this is not news. Lots of people know about this. I just wanted to share it with my little circle of friends.

And I want to encourage you to live less anonymously–whether it’s in real life or whether it’s online. It doesn’t mean you have to trust everyone who asks for your credit card or social security number. Just don’t hide from your neighbors. Know and be known.

Too often we seek refuge from the very thing that we need.

Please take a second to pray for Susan today.

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This is a post I first wrote a couple years back for a project I did to raise money for an organization called Samaritan’s Purse. I’m reprinting it here just for fun.

Need some surefire ways to get into the Christmas Spirit? Here are 10 ideas to help us all think a little less like Scrooge as the holidays get closer.

1. Let your neighbors know that you’re thankful for them. Send them some cookies or better yet, bake them a pie.

2. Make an edible cornucopia and give it to a family in need.
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This month’s featured organization is The Blood:Water Mission.

From their site:

Blood:Water Mission is partnering with groups and individuals to empower Africans to build healthier communities through sustainable clean blood and clean water solutions, while developing social responsibility in the U.S. through initiatives that provoke personal engagement and ownership.

According to them, one dollar will provide one year of clean water for an African. And there are millions of people in Africa who don’t have access to clean water. For more on their heart, check out the blog.

This brings me to my point of conviction: How can I justify spending $1-2 on one or more bottles of name-brand water (which isn’t really better than tap water according to recent studies) a day when I could use that one dollar to help someone have clean water for a year? How many Africans could you have helped in the past year? I could probably have give over 300 people clean water this past year with a little more conscience.

I admit, some locales don’t have great tap water. Here in Colorado Springs, the tap water is good to great. In Indiana, where I grew up, it’s disgusting and salty. So what can you do? Get a water purifier from Brita or PUR. According to Brita, the cost of purified gallon of water is only about $.18.

So, here’s my challenge to you (and myself): kick the bottled water habit and donate the saved money to Blood:Water Mission (or some equally reputable African water charity). There will be times (road trips, etc) when you don’t have an option, but I think with a little effort, and a couple Nalgene bottles, most of us can make the change easily.

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Why does everything feel like it should be free in the new technology age? Even people who are otherwise pretty honest and hard-working often don’t have issues snagging some free, ill-gotten wi-fi or ripping a friend’s cd.

I’ve seen recently, on a mainstream website, detailed instructions for hacking my local soda machine for free beverages. In fact, Fox News conducted an interview with the editor of a published magazine who gave tips for slacking on the job without getting caught by your boss. However, I want to focus on digital media for now.

It probably could be said that Napster (or was it Xerox?) started the whole thing, but I’m thinking of a more recent example from earlier this month. In case you didn’t hear, there was a revolt, more or less, at digg.com where users, despite the site’s best efforts, posted code that would enable you or I to make perfect copies of DVD-HD or Blueray discs. Of course, you’d have to know where to even use that code, but it’s beside the point. The fascinating thing to me was how it went from being an issue of theft to an issue of free speech, overnight.

Is it the anonymity that normalizes theft? Or is our culture just decaying? Or is it the digital medium? I think digital somehow translates into value-less. When you have a digital file that can be shared without being depleted, it seems like it shouldn’t cost something. E.g., if I have a pencil and I give it to you, I don’t have the pencil anymore. However, I can give you a perfect copy of a number of digital items I have paid money for and it doesn’t cost me a cent. Conversely, and perhaps more importantly, I can take/rent/borrow something from you and keep it for myself AND give you back what you loaned to me. No harm, no foul.

I guess I’m thinking about this since I just released an album in an all-digital format. My physical discs are coming, but those little files are really worth a lot to me right now since they are all I have to show for my years of work on that project.

There are people who will argue that peer to peer distribution actually helps an artist gain recognition and I don’t completely disagree. After all, Weird Al Yankovic is at the peak of his polka and parody career thanks to new inovations like myspace and youtube.

I will still argue in the end, though, that a lot of people aren’t interested in paying a fair price.

I don’t know why, but we would much rather take something for free when we can, than support the thing we like and enjoy. And we wouldn’t do it with a candy bar at the store or even when we see a wallet on the ground in a Wal-mart parking lot. But when it comes to digital property, what’s yours is mine.

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A couple years ago I wrote this song for my local church. Since then, it’s been used at a few other churches. I’ve decided to make it available here as a free download. It’s very communion-centric, so if you celebrate the Eucharist at Easter, check it out.
Meet Me at the Table Song (MP3)

Meet Me at the Table Chart (PDF)

technorati tags: Eucharist, communion, Easter, worship,

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We all know what Amber Alerts are. But did you know that you can get them on your cell phone for free? Check out wirelessamberalerts.org to sign up.

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