Abolitionist Christmas

If you're looking for Christmas presents, here's a great idea. I have an amazingly creative friend who has been asking people to design greeting cards and is selling to cards to raise money for the Not For Sale Campaign. The cards are 12 for $6 or 24 for $12, and over half of the profits go to helping women who have survived sex trafficking. The cards are absolutely beautiful (I've seen them) and very unique. If you're interested you can look at the designs and email Sarah (sarahd@notforsale.org) if you'd like to give the cards to someone for Christmas.

november happiness

We put up Christmas lights around our front door. The air is crisp. (such a lovely description. i always think i want something else, because that is overused. but really it's perfect.) There was frost on the leaves in the driveway yesterday. Every year I get more excited about Thanksgiving.

Sometimes I can't do things.

And sometimes, can I realize that is what makes life beautiful?

I'm not ready to see it that way
and to understand it differently than
that the walls, when they come nearer,
mean that I am growing
until I break them open, free myself from their narrowness

- Klee

The Journey Installation

You can see pictures of the installation that Emma Thompson worked on with Bondage for Freedom here.

They're pretty powerful.

I love this melding of art and activism.

Emma Thompson's Journey

Someone wonderful showed me this video of an installation that Emma Thompson worked on with a survivor of sex trafficking in the United Kingdom. The train car installation was on display in Trafalgar Square in London In September 2007. This is a short video but it walks you through the journey into sex slavery in a very visual and impacting way.

Reason to believe

india and baseball

I just got an email from the Not For Sale campaign with a link to this article about child sweatshop laborers in Delhi, India. This particular raid was successful and the government has a plan to return the kids to their families and fund their education. Unfortunately, this is just a small success story in the middle of a much bigger problem. It is encouraging, though, to see that kids are not only being freed but are also being provided for.

On another note, the San Francisco Giant's pitcher Jeremy Affeldt has been working with Not For Sale and has committed to their Team Free2Play. You can show your support for Jeremy by voting for him through the All Stars Helping Kids organization.