A Quote Worth Sharing.

I had a rest yesterday, for the most part. Lib and the boys went to Box Hill to visit Molly who's in the Epworth Box Hill for an operation to have have a plastic vein inserted in her leg to improve circulation and halt the gangrene threatening her toes.

I'd agreed to doorknock collect in our street for the Heart Foundation at some time during September (they rang me out of the blue a couple of months ago) and I did some houses before lunch. It was, as I thought it would be, a good chance to say gidday to the neighbours, most of whom I know, and it was good to meet those I didn't.

I had lunch at the Pandora's Book Cafe. While wating for my soup I looked at the preface of a book on Indonesia by Ian Southall published in 1962. The following quote by a volunteer worker struck me as especially relevant.

"One realizes that the so called 'Western' high standard of living is, after all, only an enumeration of gadgets and gimmicks which delude us into an illusion of comfort amidst much strain and tension... There is much more comfort in a bowl of rice than a big fat T bone steak."

I like that, but it seems to have gone unheeded. Apparently, 46 years on, much of Asia, including Indonesia, is aspiring to 'Western' standards of consumerism, greatly adding to the environmental crisis we face.

I did some more door knocking after lunch and with the exception of four houses with no one home my task is finished. Most people were happy to donate some coins or $5 or $10. I had four knockbacks, one saying he was a 'non donater', a lady saying she'd just donated over the phone, another lady said she'd like to give something but couldn't as her husband was not working. Another said her husband had died of cancer and she gives what she can to the Cancer Council.

About 4.pm I slipped up to the footy ground and caught a little of the the local grand final. Upwey was a point up on Silvan half way through the third quarter, 11.6 to 11.5. Silvan snagged three goals to go to 3/4 time seventeen points up, then kicked the first four goals of the last term to be up 18 goals to 11 when I left.