What’s the sound of a thousand voices?
No, it’s not a Dads Against Disney Shows meeting. Or A Jacksonville Jaguars all-time fan club gala, either. Today, more than a thousand bloggers will write on compassion. We’ll hashtag with #1000Speak and check out all the inspirational stories today. You should too.
Compassion Day and Go Ask Daddy Day fell on the same Friday.
I nabbed five compassion-ridden questions out of the bunch. We’ve been blessed with compassionate friends along the way. Today, another compassionate group of friends has stepped up.
Some dolt decided to turn donuts in a car on the soccer field where Elise’s school plays. It’s a rough field covered in rocks. Elise said she’s found animal bones in the goal. It’s their field, though. Now, it’s unplayable.
The team has asked for compassion from the community.
Want to help? Check out this website. People have already stepped up!
1. Do they still do Locks of Love?
Yes, and it’s still doing wonderful work since Marie donated her hair at age 4, and twice more since.
Locks of Love furnishes hairpieces to financially disadvantaged kids who’ve lost their hair for medical reasons. The donation gives the kids regain a sense of self as they battle their disease. Locks of Love creates custom hair prosthetics to help a kid feel like a kid again.
Find out how you can donate hair on the Locks of Love website.
2. Won’t it tear the fish’s lip if you take the hook out wrong?
Yes, you could injure a fish if you don’t remove the hook the right way.
We’re a catch-and-release family. We’ll buy seafood at Publix. We’ll fish for sport. My girls can set a hook so that a fish doesn’t swallow it. Fish with barbless circle hooks, never treble hooks. Just push the hook back and through, and return him to the water.
Leave part of the hook in the fish if it’s too difficult to remove. Just cut off as much as you can. I have it on good authority a hook will rust and dissolve enough to fall out on its own.
3. Are those football players praying?
Even in a fierce of rivalry, a group of players kneel together for a post-game prayer.
It’s a stark contrast to the violent game that takes place moments before. In 1990, two team chaplains organized the league’s first post-game prayer. They planned it after a game between the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers, on nationally-televised Monday Night Football. It almost didn’t happen.
A brawl as time expired left players unsure of what to do. They gathered to the side, and a tradition was born in the NFL. It even debuted in Super Bowl XXV, between the Giants and the Buffalo Bills.
And on the seventh day … Tim Tebow was born.
4. Not all churches are gay friendly?
I’m glad this surprises you.
We’re used to it at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. We even joke about it. I had a friend in college who wasn’t welcome back to church after they discovered his sexual orientation. The Old Testament speaks out against homosexuality. Jesus’ gospels sure emphasized acceptance and love over all, though.
I’m a Religious Studies minor, not clergy. Either way, Jesus was just all right. The dude loved everyone, even red wings fans and vegans.
Not all churches welcome everyone. Not all restaurants or college basketball programs welcome everyone. Know what’s cool about gay-friendly? You can institute it anywhere. Political party and religious affiliation don’t matter. Neither does address or climate.
That seems as Christian as it gets.
5. What’s the point of corn flakes if they’re not frosted?
Let’s wrap up a post about compassion with something sweet.
Let me preface this ode to Frosted Flakes with this disclaimer. As a 43-year-old man, I can appreciate the plain corn flake. It’s the part of me that appreciates baseball before the designated hitter. Or Olivia Newton John before plastic surgery.
In the best of worlds, all athletes could pray together after a hard-fought game. Fish could swim hook-free and kids could enter their medical challenges with self-assuredness. People could bring girlfriends and boyfriends to church, even if they were a matching set and not complimentary pieces.
And may every bowl of flakes be frosted.
Go and do.
Just a dad ... 
🙂
That’s a compassionate smile.
tnx.
How could you go wrong with ending a post on compassion with frosted flakes? Perfect my friend and now I want a bowl, too 😉
Right? Instead of buying the world a Coke, I’d offer up bowls of Frosted Flakes. (And keep the Coke to myself.)
Eli, once again I love the way you think!!!;)
“Let no frosted flake go soggy.” – Plato
Soggy are the worst indeed!!!
They’re not even worth talking about Janine.
Beautifully done, Eli!
Thank you Sandy … looking forward to seeing what everyone else posts!
This is perfect. The quote at the end is perfect. Great topics for this. Love it!
Thanks Lisa! You can never go wrong with a Maya Angelou quote. Glad the girls had a few questions that relate to compassion. Especially when it comes to Frosted Flakes.
I have never understood Frosted Flakes. Did you know the voice of Tony the Tiger is the same guy who voiced original Grinch – Thurl Ravenscroft? And how cool is his name?
With a name like Thurl Ravenscroft, he should have been a president or CEO of a chocolate company.
My mom only bought plain old corn flakes at our house so I never discovered Frosted Flakes until later in life. Could be why I’m not much of a cereal eater, but let me tell you my mom got an earful when I found out what she’d been holding back from us! 😉 Glad you’re part of #1000speak! More people need to know about Frosted Flakes!
I’m certain a Greek tragedy has been written with this premise. While mom might have derailed you from pre-diabetes, there is also a measure of joy to be gleaned from the magical dance of cold milk and crispy Frosted Flakes.
I’m honored to be part of #1000Speak and hope me and my cereal bowl aren’t too severe a turn from the serious work others have shared today!
Love it! I agree – what IS the point of cornflakes without frosting??? 🙂
Thanks Lisa! I hope future generations will never have to contemplate such a misgiving.
Love it! I love frosted flakes! We need more love in the world! I think we should start handing out frosted flakes. It can’t hurt!
Thanks Shannon! Frosted Flakes are the real breakfast of champions. Although, it’s more my midnight snack than breakfast.
I think if we dumped serving-size boxes of Frosted Flaked on ISIS, maybe they’d see the world a little differently.
I love this SO much Eli!! But of course I do… I love EVERYTHING you write. How could I not? YOU are so gifted. In the best of worlds, yes yes yes.
Thanks CC! You’re too good to me. I’m floored at the stories being shared today. All I could do was answer a few questions, but it was a blast to be involved.
You are wonderful. that is all.
thank you for adding your voice!
and I hope one day we look back and are ashamed at how we forgot the number one rule as Christians, and that it was just simply to love one another. And love, never casts anyone out. love enfolds.
This was a wonderful project, Rore. I’m honored to be a part of it. The first thing is love, isn’t it? We don’t need religion for that.
Fun post – love the way you handled the one about churches. I think that all churches should welcome and love everyone. Some of the biggest hypocrites I’ve known were in a church.
When the questions come in, some are easier to answer with passion. A church without love seems contradictory.
A smart man once said he could find more god on a lake fishing on a Sunday morning than he could in a church.
i never knew that flakes existed without the ‘frosted.’ someone was compassionate in our house, apparently.
In a perfect world, corn flakes would exist solely for chicken breading and casseroles.
I learned something. That not all fish hooks have the barb. Going to look for those the next time we go fishing. Which unfortunately, is not very often. Great post!
Thanks Dawn – always a wealth of information here on Fridays. Or a smorgasboard. Or maybe it’s just the leftovers of an average buffet. Either way, you’ll get a plateful!
Well, I didn’t know it was compassion day. I’ll have to speak to my people, hang on they’re Roos, what do they know. Oh well, as always it’s a great post Mate. I can remember the first time I had frosted flakes. My old man was working in a grocery warehouse for a while. He worked the late shift (stupid, stupid employer) and a mate with a car brought him home with his bounty every night. We ate like kings for months, there was that much canned food in the small attic the ceiling had a dip in it. But oh, weren’t those frosted flakes good. Now, what do I know about compassion? There’s not enough of it in the world.
Cheers
Laurie.
Maybe it’s a different day Down Under, mate. How’d your old man score all that food? Wait, maybe I don’t want to know.
We just have to start with a little compassion where we are and hope it grows, Laur.
No Mate, I just missed it. He stole it, plain and simple. Great food while it lasted, we left for Australia not long afterwards.
Indeed we do mate, indeed we do.
Great post and the flakes have to be frosted! Love them!mhugz Lisa and Bear
Love, peace and Frosted Flakes.
Laughed when I saw “Are they Praying?” ….. I asked my Dad the same thing when I first saw this on a football field 🙂
It almost looks like someone lost a contact lens on the field!
Although this was the trifecta of compassion: Compassion day, Coach Daddy Friday, and your daughters’ compassionate questions (day), you show compassion throughout the year. That matters most.
The cornflake box creeped me out with that chicken or rooster on the front.
Thanks, J.
And you know Tony the Tiger could kick that rooster’s ass. (His name is Cocky.)
Oh yeah, Tony could. Why am I not surprised at the rooster’s name? It reinforces the creep factor. Hope you all are doing well.
Doing great J – great to see you here.
hahah, I love the frosted flakes snip-it! And I donated to lock of loves a life time ago and have considered it again – such a great cause! The quote at the end – is perfect!
What’s compassion without Frosted Flakes? I know there are other organizations who collect hair, too.
Maya Angelou has so many spot-on quotes … you can never go wrong with her.
You had me at Olivia Newton John :). Great post Eli! #1000Speak seriously awesome.
Right? Geez she was a peach. I remember as a boy swooning over “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”
This was an incredible movement, the #1000Speak, and there are so many awesome posts, Nicki. Thank you for visiting mine.
I’m more a mini-wheats girl, but other than that? Spot on! I love that your 4-year-old donated her hair. Such a wonderful way to teach compassion to your kids!
Mini wheats are for grown-ups. At least they can be frosted. Someone got a real nice head of hair from my girl. These days she keeps it to herself, but I’m proud of her.
Locks of Love is a beautiful example of how even a very young girl can make a huge difference! Way to go, little Marie!
I’m going Michelle Obama on you about the frosted flakes. It scares me how much sugar is in supposedly healthy breakfast flakes. That being said, I buy Frosties on a regular basis. For C. I eat Nutella, hahaha! That’s probably just as hypocritical as being a Christian church and not welcoming all of God’s children. Incomprehensible.
Olivia looked great when she performed for the Sydney Olympic Games, and now I know why!
BTW she was probably Colin’s second crush when he was 2 years old. He loved watching the Xanadu video!
It would have been a sin to toss that gorgeous brown hair when she got it cut! These days, she hold onto her hair.
I would never eat Frosted Flakes for breakfast. Midnight snack, that’s a different story.
I wish Olivia and Renee Zelwegger would have just left what nature blessed them with alone.
Dads against Disney, you crack me up. I just know this is due to one of your girls making you wear a tiara at some point. I think it is incredible and says something (nice) of your parenting when your child has to ask in bewilderment that there are churches that won’t allow gay people (or others). Let’s hope our girls change the world one that keeps their belief all are equal….everywhere
Disney shows are agents of Satan, tofu and other evils. I’d gladly wear a tiara to a biker bar if it meant I could escape the poison of “Dog With a Blog” or “Shake it Up.” For real.
I think it says a lot about our times, too, that they ask this. Or ask, “has there really never been a woman president?”
I think my girls see the principals of compassion and wonder why they wouldn’t apply to everyone.
Can I attend the Dads Against Disney Shows meeting? And I’m strictly speaking about the non-cartoon variety. The cartoon ones are wonderful and require a nice bowl of Frosted Flakes to watch them.
My mom’s favorite cereal, in fact!
#4 is my favorite, though.
Here in Ring-a-Ding Land, our churches all have rainbow flags. And there’s a local priest(ess?) who marches in the Pride Parade with a sign around her neck that says, “I’m a gay priestess!”
You definitely can attend the meeting, although I suspect you heard about the cookies, that’s all. Disney disdain applies only to those tween shows that plague my waking hours.
Don’t you love that the girls couldn’t imagine a non-gay-friendly church? It kind of tells me the world has some work to do.
There’s another question about gay speed dating and one on gay princesses. Stick around.
Will do.
1. Gwen wants to donate her locks to Pantene – they only require 8 inches. The money I save on shampoo will be substantial.
2. I catch my fish in the frozen section of Trader Joe’s.
3. I got nothing.
4. I love that my kids see all sorts of couples at our temple. It’s never been an issue, and if it were, we’d find another place to worship.
5. I will only eat regular Corn Flakes if they are generously sprinkled with sugar. Frosted Flakes are just easier. And yummier.
1. Does Gwen have enough?
2. I don’t eat what I pull out of the lake, that’s for sure. But I do bring snacks.
3. (This is me, Tebowing.)
4. Isn’t it cool that kids are growing up in an era when friends can have two moms, and it’s no big deal?
5. Frosted Flakes are like, space-age food compared to Corn Flakes. I can’t believe I just capitalized corn flakes.
Oh, how I love this sentence: The dude loved everyone, even red wings fans and vegans. So, SO great!
Thanks Amy! Now that’s unconditional love.
I had no idea you were a Religious Studies minor. What was your major?
It was by accident – I’d taken a few courses out of interest, and my guidance counselor suggested I add two more classes and it would qualify as a minor.
I was an English major. What’d you study, Debbie?
I was a health and physical education major.
Makes perfect sense. We might have even been conference rivals, depending on when you were in school.
I graduated from VT in ’79 when you were probably still in elementary school! 🙂
I was … not in college, no.
Love your compassion post. I was sad to see the brawl at the end of the Super Bowl this year. So unnecessary. As for fishing for sport I’ll just keep buying my seafood from the market 😉 Love #3. Have you seen the love video floating around on Facebook with the couples/friends behind the X-ray machine?
Thanks Kenya! Part of the lessons of sports is learning to lose with grace. And I don’t blame you for sticking to the supermarket for seafood – I wouldn’t want to have to gut and fry what we catch! Catch and release all the way.
No, I haven’t seen that x-ray video yet … I’ll check it out.
Something as important as ‘Red Wings’ should be capitalized. Just saying. Woot!! :0
Love the post on compassion and the facts you’ve compiled to go along with…