Monster Cookie Ride 2014

It started with five miles of torrential downpour to get a good soggy base layer but that was followed by 15 miles of sunshine and a great tailwind.  After that you could see and feel the rain coming.  We had silly notions of being able to reach lunch before the rain.  Ten miles of a steady spring shower washed away those delusions, some of the road grit, and at 46 degrees all the sensation from our feet.

As we rolled into lunch the sky parted and we were able to enjoy a few moments of brilliant sunshine.  No one was dry, no one was warm, everyone was grimy.  Yet people were chipper and friendly to an irrational degree.  No one complained when the hot water for tea ran out or at the lack of hand sanitizer.  Mostly people were stoked about the PB, the tortilla chips and the very handy mixed fruit cups carefully assembled by hard working volunteers.  People willingly volunteered space at the portable heater.

Lunch, however, was also the point after which we started heading back and the once helpful tailwind became a headwind.  I won't lie, the headwind was rough.  It was heavy and swirly so in addition to making things generally much more difficult, it tossed us about on the road.  The rain also came back and there was one point where the rain/wind combo felt like being slapped in the face with dozens of tiny pins.  Luckily that only lasted for a few minutes.

The rain was intermittent but the wind was pretty steady for the last 30ish miles.  Due to the wet roads (no fenders) and swirly nature of the wind, drafting was only vaguely applicable.  With at least a dozen miles left I started to lose my sparkle.  I was still of good cheer but the legs were toast and I was ready to be done.

But we made it.  And there were monster cookies and a serious sense of accomplishment at the end.  The car never felt so warm and cozy.

We could have taken the easy route this morning, but then what would I have to write about?

Charitable Industrial Complex

I am on the fence about charitable giving.  I give money to a lot of non-profits, volunteer with a few and sometimes ask friends and family to donate or volunteer too.  I work full time for one right now and most of my working life has been at various 501(c)3's.  I think the ones I give money, time and support to are good and worthwhile.

But I'm suspicious.  These suspicions are a bit of a motley, possibly inconsistent, collection but I think about it a lot and here attempt to wrangle some thoughts towards coherence.

At the heart of it I fear the non-profit world may be a self-perpetuating, ineffective, distracting, counter productive, ego stroking, waste of time and money.  I think (know) some of it is doing more harm than good.  There are the outright scammers and the ones who work "pro" or "anti" whatever you are "anti" or "pro."  Worse, in a way, are the well intentioned ones building wells in an exotic foreign realm for a community without the knowledge, time or resources to maintain that well and now, because they have a well, no longer get government delivered water.  (I'm making that one up but you can imagine similar scenarios.)

I also fret over whether non-profits are doing more harm than good in less clear ways.  The Oregon Food Bank is solid.  No one objects to the Food Bank.  But is providing free food to Oregonians enabling and perpetuating a cycle of poverty?  What about providing free food to homeless orphans with AIDS in Africa?  What about providing free food to non-homeless, non-orphan grown-ups without AIDS in Africa?  Or Alaska?  Then there are the doctors flying around the globe to work in communities who do have doctors but those local doctors want to get paid.  Is this a waste of the jet setting doctor's time and resources?  Does this undermine the local doctor?  Does this ultimately undermine the local community?

This vein of thinking can cause brain cramps, hand wringing and doubt.  But there are foundations and charity-guides forming a meta-charity sub-network to make sure you understand the "right" way to spend money.

Many of those charity-guides wax on about "overhead" vs. "direct aid."  In the case of organizations paying the founder, execs or supporters massive salaries or perks while doing next to nothing for diabetes, veterans, widows, orphans, etc., that is valid.  Otherwise, I don't really care much.  My favorite non-profits operate ala businesses with the goal or intention of being profitable and effective.  For Nike effective means selling more shoes.  For the Food Bank effective is eliminating hunger and its root causes.  If spending money doing glossy promotion means more volunteers, donations, access to healthy food, better nutrition education and so on, I really don't care if that means a lower amount of my donation goes to direct program work.

On a different track, giving feels good.  Being charitable is generally regarded a virtue and charitable people get positive feedback (and tax deductions!) for this virtue.  I don't think that is a bad thing, but I do keep my eye on it.  I want to take care that my donation to the Food Bank doesn't make me feel like I'm off the hook for addressing issues of poverty and malnutrition.  Even more so, I want to make sure that the existing of a great Food Bank organization doesn't let the larger community or government feel off the hook for solving the problems of hunger.  It's cool that our company issued SUVs to all our sales staff, we sponsored the Arbor Day Fun Run!

There are more sides to this that I could drone on about but here is where I land at the end of the day:

• There are groups doing real work that is contributing something positive and valuable.
• I am incredibly rich (materially and non-materially) by any rational measure.
• Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  I'm pretty sure the Food Bank is doing great work.  Am I positive?  Nope.  Are there unintended side effects of the good work?  Probably.  Are they the best solution?  Unlikely.  Am I doing something better?  Surely not.  
• Donate mostly to local groups.  My dollar goes a heck of a lot farther in Africa than Portland but the further away from me that dollar gets the more I don't know or understand.

So we do a monthly donation, some year-end donations and probably should do more.

And we'll hold off opening the Kickstarter can of worms.