Of Trending Behavior, Peer Pressure, And NOT Giving My Usual Response To It

You have undoubtedly seen the Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts of people dousing themselves with ice water to draw attention to ALS.  This disease deserves some attention.  It is a horrible, scary disease that gradually takes away your ability to control your body.  I cannot even imagine the horror of facing such a diagnosis.  The ALS Association has benefited immensely from this campaign.  Awareness of the disease is higher that ever, and people ARE actually donating money.

I think the use of ice water is very appropriate.  I have often thought of fear as the feeling of a bucket of ice cold water being poured on my head.  The dreadful  feeling seeps into your whole being from the top down.  It is shocking, it is paralyzing, and you have to force yourself to get moving again.  Long time ALS survivors, that is those that live the longest after the dread diagnosis, face that fear every single second of every day, and they live in spite of it.  They are heroic people to go on in the face of such a difficult series of losses.  I hope and pray that the money raised by this challenge does indeed provide the funding that finds a cure.  It would probably benefit many other neurological conditions, also.  The more we know about our nervous system and our brains, and the connections between them, the better we can fight such diseases. 

Now,  a LOT of people I know have done the challenge.  I was sort of ignoring it until I got called out by my fellow #Perlgirl Jana Waller.  She challenged ALL of us to do it, and well, I went against my usual response to peer pressure, which is to strenuously resist, and did it. 
So did Kelly, Paulette, Mary, Fiona, Molly, and Patti, that I can remember.  Perlman has yet to do it, but several people who have worked with him have nominated him, so we shall see. 

Clergy at my church have done it, including the Dean.  I challenged the Children's Department at our library to do it, but I have yet to hear from any of them. 

Here's a link to Dean Justin's #IceBucketChallenge
Here's a link to Father Tim's #IceBucketChallenge

Here's a link to My #IceBucketChallenge

If you do the challenge, please also donate to the cause, and keep those who suffer with this disease in your thoughts and prayers.  There are many, many things out there in this world that need our attention and our concern.  For this week or so, the InterWebz are paying attention to ALS.  I hope we continue to remember all who suffer, and to do what we can, when and where we can to help. 
Here's a video with an important perspective on the challenge.  Please watch.
Last Ice Bucket Challenge You Need To See

And here's a link to The ALS Association's Ice Bucket Challenge Page  Please go make a donation.  Even a little one will help.  When many people make little donations, they turn into a pretty big donation, so go, do what you can to help. 
ALS can strike anyone, anytime.  It can run in families, but not necessarily.  Nobody's immune. 
As I am fond of reminding myself, we're all on this little ball of rock and mud in space together.  We got nowhere else to go (at least not yet) and even so, all we've got is each other.  Let's take care of each other more, and hate each other less.  Dousing yourself in ice water is kind of a round about way of doing that, but it gets the point across. 
Peace.