Saturday, December 8, 2012

A cup? A CUP?!

Last year for Christmas I sent my grandparents the most ridiculous movie I had seen all year.  To complement the theme, they also received notification that a dozen chicken eggs had been donated in their name. These "gifts" were not necessarily in the spirit of giving as much as they were for my own amusement. That movie is nuts and my grandparents seemed like the perfect pair to share the nuttiness with. As for the eggs, who knows, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Well, as grandparents usually do, mine had the last laugh. After Christmas my grandma told me that Heifer International, the company that I made the egg donation with, provides chicken eggs and animals to people down the street from her, rather than the exotic places that the company catalog indicates. Her exact words we something like, "I betcha didn't think you were helping the people of ol' Mississippi when you sent those eggs!" Then she laughed at me for a long time.

Fair enough. Today, like most days, Heifer International sent me some mail asking me to donate once again. But this time they didn't stop at the catalog, they went through the added trouble of sending me several return address stickers (with my no-longer-in-use last name) as well as a full page worth of labels for presents. These are not things I will ever use, obviously, but I can expect to receive them for the next ten years. This, I'm sure, brings a certain smugness to my sweet grandparents. But wait there's more! There were a series of quotes included with the useless stuff they sent, and Joe and I are having trouble coming to an agreement on what one of the quotes means.

"These children don't need a cup, they need a cow."

This was said, in who knows what context, by the guy who founded Heifer International (a company that sends chicken eggs and animals to people in other countries who need a hand). The trouble with that quote (aside from it being terrible) is that one of us believes the cup is meant to be thought of as a toy, while the other of us thinks that the cup is meant to be thought of as something to eat out of. It's not about being right or wrong here, I just want to know what the guy was trying to tell us! Any thoughts?

Quickly, last night Joe and I saw Arcardia, the Tom Stoppard play, at UNLV. It was really great and definitely worth seeing if you're in the mood for something totally awesome. It only plays through this weekend, 8pm on Sat, 2pm on Sun. Tickets are reasonably priced ($20-30) and proceeds go back to the theater program at the University. We stayed for the discussion afterwards and found out that most of the actors are students at UNLV, which is hugely impressive given the quality of the production. The acting is solid and the staging, costumes, and overall flow really take this to professional levels. It will be worth your while, I promise!

5 comments:

Carol Swift said...

I think the cup means a utensil and if it is empty it is useless. The cow was meant to feed them. Anyway, leave it to you to have something funny and interesting to make my day. :O)

Lindsay said...

Hmmm interesting... maybe they don't need just a cup of milk, but rather a whole cow to provide them with milk each day??

Lindsay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Emily said...

Wow you two, powerful stuff! So what I'm hearing is that nobody agrees with me that the cup was meant to represent a toy? Yeah... your ideas make a lot more sense. :)

Brenda M said...

I go with the utensil as well. My first thought was they twisted the wording of "Don't give a man a fish, teach him to fish." If you use a child you would want to provide them a way to have daily nutrition. I love the eggs in Mississippi story. I don't remember hearing that. I think I was given a goat a few years ago. I wonder where it is now?