Keep Loving Harder

I don’t know how many of my readers are connected to the beautiful, wonderful, amazing thing many of us like to call the 20SB Community.  Many of you, I would assume, since most of the blogs I read I discovered through the network.  That said, I’m guessing most of you have seen some version of this post and this one over the past few weeks.  As such, I’m not going to copy/paste that language.  You’ve all seen it already.

The truth is, I would have posted this at the same time as everybody else, but I was kind of on the outside of the loop and didn’t find out it was for sure going to post until about 45 minutes before it did.  I’d already scheduled a post for that morning, which had already published, and I didn’t have time to add another before I had to leave the house.  I decided then and there that I did want to devote a piece of my blog to this cause, but that perhaps the use of space may be a bit more effective if I waited until the major push had been executed.  I hope I’m right.

(I’m the one with the ukulele. duh.)(for a full list of participating bloggers, visit here.)

The second part of the truth is, I don’t know Brandy all that well.  And I know that here on the internets we all use the word “know” a little loosely, but while I do click over to her blog every now and then when someone brings attention to something specific that she’s written, I’m not even subscribed to her.  That’s not a reflection on her or her writing or my feelings on her at all.  It’s a reflection on me and how I’m always slow to the party and by the time I realized she was wonderful, my subscription list was already bursting at its seams.  I knew I could afford to leave her off because I knew the internet would never let me forget her name.  On this point, I have never been more correct.

The thing is, though, that even though I don’t know her well and Lord only knows if she knows me at all, when it all comes down, she is One Of Us.  And being a big part of a community that has given me friendships and hope and a million other things I couldn’t begin to list, I knew I had to give back to somebody who really needed it.  And she did.  She does.

LoveHarder.org has been set up for fundraising on Brandy’s and her Hot Awesome Dude’s behalf.  While 250% of the goal was raised in one day (no, that was not a typo), the fact is that no amount will be enough until a cure is found.  This doesn’t just affect these two people.  Think about it.  It could some day affect you.

If you are at all like me, you had absolutely no way of making a donation on Wednesday when the rest of the community was rallying its support around one of its favorite bloggers.  So, just in case you just got paid, or found a twenty in your jeans pocket, or spent all weekend fishing coins out of your couch for the cause, I just thought I’d remind you.  This problem didn’t begin and end within a 24-hour period.  It is on-going.  If you wanted to donate then and couldn’t, do so today.  Or next week.  Or next month.  Whatever.  Love Harder.  And Love Longer.

Every little bit counts.

(i wrote this post and then scheduled it.  since doing so, the effort has reached $3,000, the goal has been raised from the original $1,000 to a more fitting and terribly attainable $5,000, loveharder is now on twitter, and an online store has been opened (the coffee mug is soooo being added to the things-i-need list).  there are so many ways to support this amazing cause. anything you can do is appreciated.)