The end of the month brought with it another end -- the blogging career of Area 40 / JBF / Wes Moore. From his send-off card cornucopia, he sent me one hit...it's a jersey card of my favorite baseball player.that I had never seen before. Nice, strong photo. Awesome die-cut jersey window. Description of the jersey on the back. I know it sounds like I am keeping my calm, but THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL AND IT MAKES ME VERY HAPPY.
Enough about the card - just a quick message to Wes on his way out. My wife and I came up with a family "mission statement" a few years back about what we wanted our family to be like. It was a bit aspirational, but one main characteristic we said we wanted was to be generous. I say this is aspirational because my natural inclinations are to hold onto things, money, and comforts too tightly. However, if I want to be truly generous, I have to work at it -- to relinquish those things without bitterness for the good of another person. So to help me figure this generosity thing out better, I go looking for examples -- people doing it already so I can see what it looks like. I can think of no better immediate example than looking at the card-blogging community and seeing what Wes has done for so many "random" others through his generosity, and I am in awe. I have thought about this more times that you can imagine and it is flat-out inspiring to me. So from one collector to another - thank you. Not just for the cards, but for a model of something truly important. That is what I will take from this. Au revoir!