good morning, todays blog is about the number 9.
who remembers sesame street, where they would dedicate an episode to a number and a letter?
if you do, i bet you’ll have a warm fuzzy feeling inside, if you don’t, i’m sorry.
does sesame street even exist anymore?
i hope so.
i used to love sesame street, and as i type this sipping my freshly brewed brazilian, (please don’t go there) the fragrant smell of ground beans hits my bugle like a cassius clay uppercut, and if you now reach to google the aforementioned mr clay, please donate a fiver to just giving, and don’t worry, that will hopefully be the last time i use my experience as a quinquagenarian, which i know is what us 50 to 59 year olds are termed, what i didn’t know was what 60 to 69 year olds are called, i’ll leave it there.
two senses caffeinated, i drift into the world of sesame street, and turn to wiki for help.
“Sesame Street” was set in a fictional New York neighborhood and included ethnically diverse characters and positive social messages. Taking a cue from “Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In,” a popular 1960s variety show, “Sesame Street” was built around short, often funny segments featuring puppets, animation and live actors.
and as i research more about this show, which spawned ’the muppets’ i realise how ahead of its time it was, diversity, the fix it shop, the bicycle shop, subject matter that if based in a shoreditch based show today would still be credible, so it’s power back in 1969 was in my opinion, genius.
so why the number 9?
we’ll get to that, but first, here’s a just giving update we’re a little late, but this morning we hit £150,000, which with gift aid added is about £164,000 so if you have contributed in any way so far, thank you, and if you are going to we really appreciate you getting involved.
which leads me on to chilli jam clare, who you may recall a few blogs ago committed to fundraising £10k for bigmoose after my plea for help.
well last night we held a tapas night at bigmoose coffee co, which apart from being extremely tasty, and allowing me time to reflect on how proud we are of this bigmoose journey, and all it encapsulates, it brought chilli jam clare out for a knees up with mr chilli jam and two of their friends, who were big supporters of our mission, and lovely to talk to, but the bit that thrilled me was that chilli jam clare had lost none of her initial enthusiasm for her commitment to the cause, unlike those times that you get worked up into a frenzy, with the surroundings, the atmosphere, the energy, you know like when in spain you enter desigual, a clothing store with a target market, definitely not aimed at quinquagenarians, and insist to your much better and smarter half that you can pull off the red jean look, and with some wild fantasy that walking down queen street, everyone will admire your half hippy, half picasso look, doffing their caps as you pass them, giving them that knowing smile, that yes you are that confident that you do not even need to check your look in the mirror before you leave the house, and this is who you really are, only to return to the overcast british shores to realise that red jeans doth not the fantasy hippy make, and you wait until the wise one is away working in some far away land before tightly folding them up ceremoniously, and placing them into the sue ryder bag, realising the inevitable?
luckily chilli jam clare’s passion for her crazy, impulsive, dream state decision, is still burning ferociously, with a white hot enthusiasm, that excited me the more we spoke post potatas bravas.
she has a plan, she has engaged a team of friends to help her, and i have every confidence she will achieve her target, please cheer her on and support her at https://www.justgiving.com/team/teamchillijam
and if you need a reason, or a why to help, we come back to the number 9.
what is the significance of the number 9 in todays blog?
9 is the number of people since january 1st this year, that have now given us testimonials telling us that they were going to kill themselves, before they received intervention, and therapy.
9
this is both brilliant, as they are still with us, but also very scary to imagine the consequences if they hadn’t received help.
so, what can we do?
our best.
if we all do our best, we will save lives, fact.
whether your best is to fundraise a seemingly impossible amount of money to help pay for therapy, or possibly link bigmoose into a resource who might be able to help us, whatever that looks like, or possibly check in with someone with a call or text to see if they’re ok, all three things can help save another person, so please, take action today, as lots of small actions lead to big actions, and our movement grows even stronger, and if you know someone that needs help, please signpost them to me, and we will help them.
to finish off with today, i just wanna say thank you to joanne jenkins from pencoed panthers running club, who have committed to fundraising £10k and have some amazing plans, which i can’t wait to share, and bike park wales and itv, for doing a story on bigmoose on monday, the momentum is growing, only £850k to go!
have a dynamite week, be kind, and make someone happy, it’s contagious.
i’ll be seeing ya,
blue skies,
jeff