Friday, January 13, 2006
TIME FOR A RANT--MY BULGING MAILBOX
I haven't for a while, and every week I say I'm going to blog it; and every week other things take precedence. But not today. The news has been slow for the past few days, and we're gearing up for the first encyclical, so I'll do it now while the opportunity presents itself.
Are you curious yet?
Catholic begging.
The gimme letters.
A lot of which come from religious orders, but not all of them.
I used to be a lot more charitable of heart. Over the last several years there have been soooooooooooooooooooooooooo many of these mailings. I'm on two mailing lists that must circulate around Catholic charitables like water swirling down a drain. How I can tell is that one list has my name coupled with my mother's name from the days when I was helping her manage her checkbook before she died. Back in the last century and the very earliest part of this one. She died early in 2001. I'm not overjoyed at being reminded of the days when she was suffering with Alzheimers and her quality of life was deteriorating rapidly. Or the last days of her life when she didn't even know me. That's what receiving this mail brings to mind.
I had hoped that by refusing to respond, I would eventually fall off the lists. It's not working. Most of the time I get two mailings for whatever organization is in the mailbox on any given day. The mother and daughter one, and the daughter only one.
One particular gross offender is American Life League. I think Judie Brown does good work. I used to contribute whenever possible. Somehow that put me on the frequent-flyer list. Both me's. I no longer contribute to American Life League. Now if only the mail would stop! But it doesn't. It just keeps coming, and coming, and coming. And I just keep getting angrier and angrier.
Last Christmas I contributed exactly $0 through the mail to a Catholic organization. Oh, I gave to a couple Christian favorites, and I gave to the St. Vincent DePaul Society at my church. They don't send me junk in the mail, and I have never been placed on anyone else's mailing list by the non-Catholic Christian organizations I support. Unlike the Catholic ones.
Do the orders think those little "gifts" they send are going to persuade me to change my mind? You know, the tin cross that cuts the lining of your pocket if you put it in there. The ugly junky plastic statues of St. Joseph, 3 inches high. The pictures of the Blessed Virgin on heavy cardboard. (What could the BVM be thinking?) The rosary beads. Green. White. Blue. Crystal. You can't just dump this stuff in the waste basket. You have to worry that it will be desecrated if you do. I've been making a collection. When it gets big enough, I think I'll take a picture of it and send it to some of these organizations along with some pointed comments about wasting of contributions.
I do get one small satisfaction, though. Sometimes they send me return address labels. These I put in the stamp drawer, and gleefully use them in the spirit of revenge. They were "gifts" afterall, and I didn't ask for them, so I sure don't intend to pay for them!
All you fundraisers for Catholic organizations out there, pay attention. I'm not the only disgusted former contributor. You can beat a good horse to death. You're doing it!!
