Quick $150 (maybe)

I was looking at the writing jobs over the weekend on Craig's List. I hadn't looked in months because there is so rarely anything there for pay -- and when there is pay, it's ridiculously low -- and I'm not being a snob -- I saw one that paid $5 for a 500-word article. All the promises of "no compensation" but the great honor of being published.

However I came upon one ad where the people are trying to make a collection -- sort of like the Chicken Soup for your Soul books -- but this one is called Miracles of Kindness. They were asking for stories about kindness and I read it and then noticed that if your story is used and the book is published, you get $150.

So I have a story, and I wrote it in about five minutes -- didn't work on it or anything... then I forgot about it. Just now I heard back from the editors who wrote:

Thank you so much for your story submission to “Miracles of Kindness”.  Mark and I have read it through and agree that the story fits nicely into our tapestry of kindness and bears following up.

Of course, they are still raising money to publish this book. I feel like if nothing happens or if they steal my story, I'm out nothing.

So wanna hear my story of kindness? I don't even have a copy of it as I just typed it in a Craig's List email.

When my father was dying, I flew home to NYC and this high school friend and her husband picked me up at LaGuardia. I was crying and upset and I was sitting in the backseat of their car and my friend's husband was driving and I glanced down and saw I'd lost a button on my winter coat. I said something like "oh no, now I've lost a button." It was one of those things like the straw that broke the camel's back.

My friend looked at my coat, then looked down at hers and realized the buttons were very similar and she started pulling, then gnawing, at her coat button until it came off and she handed it to me. I closed the story by saying that all these years later-- more than 40 years -- and all of the kindness extended to me during that time, what I remember is that one solitary button.

I wrote it better than here, but it is a true story. I think about it -- about how we all want to do something when a friend is hurting and this story has always reminded me that I don't have to do something big -- just do something -- even give your friend one button.

Part II -- On Twitter there are regular people you choose to follow and then there is what's called "Promoted Tweets" which are Tweet ads that you get whether you want them or not. As it turns out Crayola is having a contest with the prize as a big Crayola gift box of products (yeah, as if I need them) and in the 140 characters that Twitter allows, you had to answer the question "What city has the best outdoor art?"

So I could see the answers people were sending, and they weren't that good... I knew I could do better so I thought a bit and came up with this:

#GoCrayola NYC because our diverse population with people of all colors makes every sidewalk a work of living art.

 

Ok, I love that answer, and it's got to get the judges' attention -- so creative! I need those Crayolas!!