Beyond seeing it knowing your place in it how do you fit in and why is the situation of the global community always seem to be at odds or at war why do some sit around checking the stock market and others wonder where the next meal is coming from.

Well in 1974 when I was 19 years young I pondered this inequity being born in a wealthy country far from poor also far from rich I did see at some point that the wealth was concentrated at the top and probably for most of us that was okay I mean I thought “hey, just throw me a bone.”

I was a college drop out but I was working full time a member of the union and I was feeling pretty flush with cash living at home with my parents generally watching the world go by and living for the weekend.

I would sit at home most nights watching the boob tube and it’s easy to understand why it is called that the low class, low taste, tacky and funny servings the inane commercials. Some of this drivel did have an impact however The Walton’s, Kung Fu, Sandford & Son, All in the Family some beautiful classic material.

One regular commercial featuring Sally Struthers making a pitch for the Christian Children’s Fund suckered me in hook line and sinker: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kNnkbkZeWKc

I think it was a legit organization I certainly believed at the time and my marathon running idol Abebe Bikila was from Ethiopia and for only pennies a day the price of a pack of gum I could save a child there.

Signed me up received photos from a child and letters and wrote a few letters in return. It felt like I was doing something important I mean it wasn’t really much.

I never told anyone because my friends would mock me. Sally Struthers was routinely satirized along with the Christian Children’s Fund: http://www.humanosphere.org/basics/2014/10/help-giving-just-cents-just-whole-lot/

It was a time in my young life felt insecure most of the time struggled to find some meaningful way to live read a lot usually while watching TV strangely enough the hero’s in my athletic biographies seemed happy enough maybe I need to see what I can do with that. 

At the time it was New Zealander Murray Halberg “Clean Pair of Heals” outlining what seemed such a thrilling life in traveling with your mates taking on the best athletes the world had to offer.

New Zealand exotic land down under.

At some point I stopped my regular contribution to the Christian Children’s Fund probably during one of my moves I packed up the letters from my child in a box and left them in the basement of my parents house.

Sometimes I might wonder what became of my child perhaps became another of Ethiopia’s famed runners or maybe just hung on to survive like so many of his countrymen.

Soundtrack English Beat: