in ireland, they say estate to mean subdivision and garden when they mean lawn. a confused bunch, those irish.

a few months back i told you about how a kid i know was in hospital. well, he seems to now be in the clear, although there will for a few years be annual checkups specifically to check for the thing that landed him there. so, you know, not exactly completely out of the wood, but sort of like at the edge there where you can see the car park but you haven't reached it yet, capice?

he recently celebrated a birthday and his parents said please don't give him any more toys because he has way too many as it is. so we gave a wee bitty donation to that hospital in his honor. i made the donation online and received an email confirmation. we wrote a card to explain and his parents thought it was great. that was it.

until... they received a card from the hospital, telling them about the donation. and, we received a thank-you card from the hospital and then we received a thank-you letter from the university of which the hospital is a part. that's three mailings from one donation - all unnecessary. pretty sure that's what they're talking about when they say that charities have "overhead expenses" but it's simply ridiculous. there was no need for any of those cards or letters, all multiple piece mailings with envelopes and mailing costs. what a waste.

i recently gave a much larger donation to another organization in the guise of a raffle for a house. (not talking about st jude's, although i did that one, too.) i have given to this organization before, and i know they provide a printed letter for tax deduction purposes, but that's the only thing they've ever mailed me by paper mail. everything else has been by email. i feel they are much more consciencious with my money. maybe they aren't - it's not like i've done an audit - but i feel like they are.

feeling like someone is carefully spending my money to do good encourages me to give them more. being pelted with paper - whether from alumni organizations or from a cause i have given to in the past - discourages continued giving and makes me wonder how much of my money is going to do good, and how much is being used to support the paper monster.

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