I used to work for Canada's largest charity, The Canadian Cancer Society. The society does all sorts of great stuff for people including driving people to their appointments, offering support and information on treatment and diagnosis. It's a great charity that has helped my family in times of struggle. Having worked for the society for many years, I am always interested in how other charities work, so this story about Gaga's Born This Way charity really caught my eye.
Lady Gaga started Born This Way a few years ago to support LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) youth to help them overcome the stigma they may face coming out. However, the charity's 2012 statements show that of the $2.6 million they raised, less than $5,000 actually went to charitable acts.
Less than $5,000. There's even a whopping $808, 661 spent on what they call "other" and don't even expain what that other is. That's close to half of what they raised! I don't know about you, but while I understand that there are loads of expenses that come with running a charity right, the fact that the only money that appears to be earmarked for grants is $5,000. This seems like a huge mismanagement to me.
You can see the rundown in more detail at The New York Post. For the charity's part, they took to The Huffington Post today to "set the record straight." Tell me what you think. Did Gaga squander charity money?
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Image courtesy of FlameFlyNet.com
Recently, I got a chance to meet with four parents who also happen to be musicians, and was able to chat with them about touring, parenthood and if they have any advice or lessons they could offer being a parent in a unique situation. In the first of these chats, I met with Carolyn Brooks of The Good Lovelies. Caroline writes momontheroad.ca, a blog about touring with her daughter, Annie.
I really loved getting to chat with Carolyn and am fascinated by and impressed with her ease in travelling around the world with her daughter, often without her husband or other family in tow. I also think she's very lucky to have bandmates who are so into helping with the littlest lovely, otherwise, the whole thing would be much more difficult.
What do you think? Would you tour the world with your kids?
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This weekend was The Oscars. In the aftermath of the show, people complained about winner Lupita Nyong'o's blackness and thinness, about Kim Novak's face and about all sorts of other ridiculous, superficial things. Even I was shocked by Novak's look on Sunday night, as she seems to have been plastic surgeried to within an inch of her life. But upon further inspection, this is a woman who had her whole career been belittled and brow beaten into submission during an era where she was constantly compared to her "betters" in a field she never truly felt comfortable in.
I thought, "It must be a real shame to not feel comfortable in your own skin to do such things to your body." And then I thought some more. These words were basically what my mother said to me when I got my first tattoo. Since that first one 17 years ago (I cannot even believe it was that long ago), there have been many more and I love them all. And while I usually also love the body that brought my two kids into the world, lately, I've been feeling terrible about myself over a few measly pounds (ten to be exact).
I am tall. 5'9". I am curvy, and always have been even at my skinniest weight. Currently, I weigh 185lbs, am a size 10-12, but for some reason, I absolutely loathe myself. I'm tired. I haven't had the time or energy to exercise in months. I miss running, but I get vertigo on treadmills (any indoor equipment, really), and it's been far too icy for this klutz to run this winter. Matt's still working full time graveyard shift, so I solo parent 95% of the time.
Excuses, right? Probably. But I'm also feeling unreasonably hard on myself and have no idea how to shake it. It's March (lousy smarch weather!) and it's STILL snowing/-20 out. My exercise consists of walking back and forth between the shop and my house once or twice a day. I'm eating doughnuts and scones instead of meals. It's all leading up to a whole lot of meh.
How does this tie into the Oscar telecast, you ask? Well, nothing is particularly terrible in my life, and no one has repeatedly told me I was ugly, nor does my life rely on my "looks," yet here I am, just wanting to crawl into a hole. So I fully understand why Kim Novak had so much garbage injected into her face. Low self-esteem in a career where you get cast aside just for turning a year older is pretty much par for the course.
So, let's all go a little bit easier on others so we can maybe try and be a little bit easier on ourselves (good advice, me).
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