I read today that among other things, every small business
should donate and advocate for some social issue. The benefits, according to studies, show that
consumers are 87% more likely to buy from a business that advocates for an
issue that they identify with. Of course
it is only wise for every human being to take stands on important issues like,
literacy, anti-bullying, anti-rape and sexual abuse, green ecology, endangered
species, etc. The article I read simply
stated that if you make that stand and advocacy part of your brand, people will
be more inclined to purchase your wears.
So what are you passionate about? What issue makes you so emotional that you
have to take a stand? For me there are
so many I have a tough time choosing. Of
course I am against domestic violence since my first husband was physically,
emotionally and sexually abusive. I
still have marks, scars, chipped teeth and horrific memories about those 4
years, 7 months, and 28 days before I left him.
However I don’t make a great advocate in that area because the trauma
still makes me shake when I am confronted.
I was brave enough to leave and take his gun so that he didn’t get a
chance to shoot me as he promised he would if I ever left him. Beyond that, I leave the advocacy to others
braver than I.
My passion in art is children and children’s
illustration. So it makes good sense to
me to be all about literacy in children.
I have always thought that is the reason for illustration: to encourage
children to find out more of the story beyond the illustration. In a world where movies take the place of
books and video games are more intriguing to children than reading, I want
children to develop the love of reading and literature that I have. To do that with my own children, I read to
them aloud every day even through their high school years. Even when they thought they were too old and
intelligent to be read to, they couldn’t escape from reading time because the
story always pulled them out of their rooms to listen. We also limited TV time so reading became
better than movies.
One summer when my children were still pre-teens, I babysat/day
cared for several children whose parents were friends of my mother’s. I gave them swim time, art time and of
course, reading time. One of those
children had to leave in the middle of the summer to stay at her grandmother’s
house so she never heard the end of the book we had been reading a chapter or
two each day. Some years later, I saw
her mother in the bank and she had to ask what the title of the book was
because her daughter couldn’t remember and was dying to find out how the book
ended. Today that little girl (now grown
with her own children) is a very dear friend on Facebook. A few short weeks and she still remembers how
I gave her the love of reading.
After my children left home to make homes of their own, I
began reading to my young nieces and nephews whenever I visited. They loved the books I chose and kept coming
back for more. After those nieces and
nephews grew, I began to choose other children to introduce to books at my
church. I befriended several girls who
were at the time preteen and decided to just be interesting in them and their
life. It didn’t take much. I asked about their classes and their loves
and their dreams. I knew their birthdays
and kept what they told me confidential.
It seems to me if more women befriended young girls and just spent the
smallest of effort on listening to them and caring about them, we would have
fewer teen pregnancies. Girls just want
to know someone cares. Parents are great
and not to blame, but girls reach a certain age and what parents say seems
archaic. But if a friend, aunt, mentor,
says the same thing, instills the same values, they listen and treat the ideas
and concepts with more respect. It
shouldn’t be that way but it often is.
It always seemed to me that if more older grown women took
more young teens and preteens under their wing for just a few hours a month, a
lot of things may be better in the world.
There may be less crime, fewer teen pregnancies, less bullying, more
confident, self-motivated young people.
