Virtual Couches

I woke up this morning to a tongue in my eye and hearty bacon breath panting at me, and realized two things. 1) Dogs and beds should not be the same height. 2) I see a hugely excellent reason to have a pet you can keep in a file folder.

I was having dinner with three close friends on New Year's Eve, and one of them was telling me about her virtual pet on Facebook. I, having proudly resisted the urge to open up an account for several years, officially caved to peer pressure after she told me that.

Although I haven't spent much time on it yet, I'm interested in the rest of the things it can do. Is there a virtual couch you can sit on? What about a virtual cup of coffee? What applications have amateurs developed, considering there were almost 200 hits for virtual pet program applications on Facebook when I searched tonight.

Personally, I've gone from being a consumer only to a producer-consumer. More and more, the line between amateur and professional content is getting blurred. When blogs are getting more hits than professional newspapers, with equal and sometimes superior quality, I think it's time to ask ourselves what is the role of the producing consumer in today's business model?

ITunes is another great example. Just a few years ago, Ipods didn't exist. Now, ITunes is the second largest retailer in the US, trailing only Wal-Mart. Local bands, without the ability to promote themselves in the same way that major labels do, can nonetheless get benefits out of being available to download.

If you haven't read Chris Anderson's book and blog The Long Tail, http://www.thelongtail.com/, I highly recommend it. It's a fascinating theory that proposes if, given infinite choices, consumers' demand will swell to meet that number of choices.

So, back to Facebook. While I've been writing this entry, three people have written on my wall, I commented on two of their statuses, made plans with another for dinner next week and considered adopting a virtual penguin. As Facebook's corporate image has always been that they don't care about money, the tide is starting to turn - you have ages, genders, interest groups, localities - about everything you need to run a successful marketing program. Now the only question is how will they use it in a way that the commercial aspect doesn't take over?

Is Chris correct? Are there infinite demands for infinite choices?

If virtual penguins didn't exist, would we ever have known that we needed them?

The Giving Fund

New Year's is a time for reflection. A time to consider (however briefly) the opportunity to stop smoking, start working out, redo the budget. Prioritize what's important. Clean out the closets. Organize your birthday cards a year in advance and call your grandmother more often. All kinds of dreams, all kinds of ideas.

I know of very few people who have any luck successfully transforming themselves into something different. It's by no means undoable, but unlike far too many self help books that preach the gospel of changing yourself and the actions will follow, I propose a different method. "You are," said Aristotle "what you repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an action but a habit." So change your behavior now, and your heart, mind and soul will follow.

Giving for me was the hardest. I wanted to be the kind of person who gave. I wanted to give because Jesus was the ultimate giver. But it was hard. I had bills. I had a mortgage. And I had an overwhelming amount of guilt because there were people who had it so much worse off than I did, and many of them gave generously. A friend of mine from college had to struggle through her final exams back and forth going to the school's hospital to sit with her mom as she lay dying of cancer. This extraordinarily faithful woman put her hope in the Lord and even as she struggled to raise children alone, she gave faithfully.

Financially, giving was something that I worshipped. It took on a place of importance that turned into a prideful issue. I would most certainly give, but always with a careful eye on my tax write-off, and particularly would give to causes when I felt they were worthy of my gift and I would be properly credited.

As I've grown in my giving, I find those things less important. I make a list of causes that I care about and I give generously. I don't try to give everything to every cause. I don't make excuses that my gift is too little to count, or that the charity can't be trusted. I find charities that I can trust, then I trust them. In its purest form, giving to charity is buying nothing. But if you've ever given regularly, you'll understand that giving will buy you something that no thing can replace.

I challenge all of you who budget to put money in your giving fund. If you can write the check now, then you should. If you can't (and the reason stopping you is almost always fear or greed), then don't write it. But put the money aside and pray about it. Think about the people in your life who have been generous with you, or if you don't have any, break that cycle.

My causes are varied. I care about church, Junior Achievement, Toastmasters, the library and politics. My giving is reflected accordingly. I want you to give boldly, as you've already received. When you give in line with your values, you'll be free.

What I most want is for my life to be an inspiration to the ones I hold the closest. For all the differences you may be able to come up with between Donald Trump and Billy Graham, there's really only one: if you glorify yourself, you must win as somebody loses. If you glorify Him through your sacrificial love and praise, others will lift you up. Look to the Ultimate Giver, for He is the only one who will ever and always out give you.