Dear Santa:

As no doubt you have been monitoring my being naughty or being nice this year — which brings up a whole other thing about online and offline privacy, we can discuss that later though — I’d like to pose a question, does your standard for being good come strictly from the song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town?” I ask because I want to be clear.

If this is the case, the concept of good seems to linked to the phrase “for goodness sake.” So, being good is good because it’s the right thing to do. Yes? The right thing to do?

In that vein, let me take this opportunity to talk to you a minute about your branding. Because why? Because it’s the right thing to do. continue reading …

The first of August this year, at a friend’s house on a Friday night I collapsed. That night, I had one bottle of beer and in the middle of eating a slice of pizza, I was on the floor and on the verge of not breathing. I was rushed to St. David’s and the doctor diagnosed it as a seizure and dehydration but in all of my 35 years, I’ve never had anything like it. In the emergency room, they treated me, ran tests (including EKG and a CAT scan) and prescribed some anti-seizure medicine. The tests did not indicate any abnormalities, my blood pressure was within range and my lungs were clear. I was released early Saturday morning.

In my mind, nothing fully explains why I slumped to the floor and turned blue. I need to stay hydrated, that’s for sure. Needless to say, I am very glad to be alive right now.

At the time, I didn’t have health insurance. I am in the process of securing health insurance and I’m doing fine now, but this makes the the health insurance crisis very personal — 50+ million people in this country are without appropriate or any coverage at all. You would be right to imagine that I have a sizable bill right now.

A group garage sale will be coming up in the next month or so, all proceeds will go to this bill. My friend Leonard just donated his U2 floor tickets in Arlington this Monday, which I sold on Craigslist. And I’m still planning on running the Austin Marathon in February 2010 and will use it as an opportunity to raise money for local organizations that provide support for persons without health insurance. Other opportunities may present themselves and whatever I don’t need for my hospital bills will get donated.

Thanks everyone.