Riot Christmas Challenge...

I shared in an earlier post how I was going to start laying out the Riot Christmas Challenge. I have been talking about it a couple of times a day on the air and put the following text together that will be posted on the main pages at both of our websites. Merry Christmas all!

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You’ve got a problem: you’ve got too much stuff. You do. You know you do. Look around. I’ll bet you have things that are still in boxes. CDs that are still wrapped. DVDs that are unopened (or barely watched). All of this stuff collects dust which causes your roommate to sneeze which then causes the dust to gather in disgusting mini-sculptures that vaguely resemble Abraham Lincoln.

What’s the answer?

Not so fast. There’s another problem: Christmas can be a tough time of year for a lot of people. Life can be expensive and making ends meet is hard enough. When adding the burden of buying gifts, the financial quagmire can seem like Florida trying to beat Ohio State for the national title. It’s impossible.

They need stuff. You have too much stuff.

After you read this, get up and go do something: gather up your stuff. Anything extra you don’t want or need. (Remember: trash goes to the dump. Don’t give your trash away. Throw it away.) Make a pile… and then start listening. Somewhere in your extended “circle” of friends and family members are people who would get great joy out of some of the things in your pile. Find a way to get it to them. Hand it to them, wrap it up and have someone else give it to them as a surprise, mail it—whatever you want! Just do it! I know you’re going to have one of your best Christmases on record.

“You mean, I’ll get more stuff I don’t want or won’t use? Isn’t that what Christmas is all about?”

Ummm… maybe… but you should also consider that the joy of giving is worth more than a bunch of stuff you’ll end up giving away or throwing away later. Of course this is purely an academic debate at this point. The quickest way to find out if there really is any joy in giving is to go do it.

(That was your hint. Get moving. Go. Right now. Quit reading this. Go make your distribution pile and give stuff away. Hurry.)