I Believe in Zero.

I saw one facet of UNICEF's new campaign yesterday, a 60 second commercial on national TV. Several film and tv actors, as well as musicians were some of the people teaming up together to let us know that they "believe in zero." The facts are this: everyday 25,000 kids die from preventable causes. We believe this number should be zero. We believe this number could be zero. You can head over to Unicef's site to find out more (you can click on the handy-dandy button at the top of this post). They also have it set up on the site that you can send an e-mail to President Obama if this is something that's on your radar and you want it to be on his and his administration's. UNICEF -- being an integral part of the United Nations -- obtains the majority of its funding through governments around the world, so it's always important to have the chance to have a voice in this.

We're not usually quite so serious on here -- the 10.10 blogosphere is for the most part a genuinely affable sort of place that's here to bring you information and ideas among other things -- but I was struck by something yesterday that I just needed to share. I had rushed through the workday and not taken time to eat lunch (something that happens about once a week or so).

Right after work, I am driving to the grocery store to pick up some groceries for my dinner. I had that sort of hunger that comes from not eating all day, and thought: good thing I'm going to the store so I can get some food! Then, I immediately remembered the UNICEF campaign ad I had seen earlier. This beginning feeling of hunger that I had in my stomach is something that (no joke) millions of kids feel every.single.day and to a much greater degree than what I was feeling. And just as easily as I can go to a building that has rows and rows and rows of all sorts of food to choose from, they, more often than not, have no other option than to just remain hungry.

I can't fully say what God was telling me right then (I'm still working through it and I admittedly suffer from self-selected hearing at times), but something just suddenly seemed so....odd....and heartbreaking...and poignant to me at that moment -- that I should be here in this situation, while someone else is in a completely different situation. Moments like these are what fuel my belief that not only do I believe in zero, but that I have no other choice to believe. I have to believe in the possiblity of zero in the middle of this sometimes mixed-up, upside down planet we call our home, otherwise I'd live in a hopeless place. And not only do I have to believe, I have to do something with that belief.

Like we said, we don't usually break it down to so seriously on here. I think of an honest line from another blogger I read, Eugene Cho, as he was introducing a recent post on homelessness:

"Let’s be honest. There are some posts you naturally want to read and there are others that just don’t interest you at all. "

These are tough topics, there's no doubt. These are serious topics, there's no doubt. But we have to ask ourselves, do we have enough love and compassion to tackle them? I think we do.