Volunteering: Soldier CARE Packages

I had a chance to do some volunteer activity, coordinated with Nefesh B'Nefesh, a little over a momnth ago. The holiday of Tu B'Shevat (the New Year for the trees) was fast approaching, but soldiers protecting the country would not be able to spend the holiday at home, as they would in a more perfect world. So, instead, we packed up care packages full of items they might need for the winter.

Step 1: making the boxes.

Step 2: Adding dried fruits, fresh socks, rain ponchos, and whatever else they might need.
Step 3: Add fresh socks, candies, rain ponchos, and whatever else they might need.

Step 4: Seal up the boxes and slap on the address labels.

Step 5: Throw them into mail sacks.

Step 6: Order pizza.

It took great control to avoid violating Weight Watchers. All right, I confess, I had a slice. Not two. If I weren't being careful, I could easily have eaten a whole pizza without a second thought.

There was, of course, a social aspect to the evening. Unfortunately, that's where I kinda fell behind. It's hard for me to be in large rooms full of people speaking at high volume. Usually I just kinda mosy around and look at the pictures on the wall.

It's not that I'm shy, although I am slightly introverted. It's just that I don't like to waste words on unimportant topics. I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who apologized to a friend that he was sorry he had written such a long, verbose letter, and he would have been able to make it far shorter if he had more time to write it. There is a Hassidic concept that the number of words a person is alotted in his lifetime is assigned at birth. Therefore, to prolong one's life, one should minimize one's word useage. I just hope the blog isn't deducted from my overall word quota.