{"id":1313751,"date":"2018-12-23T22:48:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T08:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/?p=1313751"},"modified":"2018-12-24T10:13:21","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T20:13:21","slug":"tad-bartimus-for-christmas-im-giving-to-the-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2018\/12\/tad-bartimus-for-christmas-im-giving-to-the-faces\/","title":{"rendered":"Tad Bartimus: For Christmas, I’m Giving To ‘The Faces’"},"content":{"rendered":"
HANA, Maui — Christmas was stressful for my mother. An enduring image is watching her sit at the dining room table, Johnny Carson joking in the background, as she fiddled with a stack of bills next to her checkbook.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOkay, kids, who\u2019s going to win the lottery?\u201d she\u2019d say, sorting the envelopes into \u201cpay now\u201d and \u201cpay later.\u201d My brother and I never bothered to answer because we knew mom would always \u201cpay the faces first.\u201d<\/p>\n
That meant a check for the plumber, mechanic, snowplow driver, assorted kid minders, hairdresser and anyone else who helped out my 50-hours-a-week newspaper editor mom while our Air Force pilot dad was off flying, often to Vietnam.<\/p>\n
The \u201cbig guys\u201d who sold on credit and billed every month \u2013 Sears, Montgomery Ward, Macy\u2019s \u2013 occasionally got token payments instead of the full amount.<\/p>\n
Mom taught me to always \u201cpay the faces first\u201d because we counted on the small town kindness and goodwill of friends, neighbors and local business owners who, like us, lived paycheck to paycheck. This attitude extended to holiday giving.<\/p>\nStudents in Hana’s two language immersion programs, Ke Kula Kaiapuni o Hana and Punana Leo o Hana, wait to perform for the community Christmas program. <\/span>Dean Wariner\/Civil Beat<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It\u2019s not that she didn\u2019t donate to the Salvation Army (\u201cremember when the tornado came through and they brought us blankets and hot soup?\u201d), the volunteer fire department (\u201cremember when SOMEBODY set the trash can on fire?\u201d), and the animal shelter where she dropped off rescued dogs.<\/p>\n
But when Christmas rolled around Mom always knew the faces of a parent whose child was in the hospital, a man who\u2019d lost his job, a woman battling cancer, the elderly couple buying canned soup instead of hamburger at the end of the month. A keen observer and interpreter of her community, she taught us to pay attention to the faces around us because \u201cthat\u2019s where you see the worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why my \u201cpay later\u201d stack every Christmas is a pile of appeals from worthy causes asking for donations to benefit the environment, the arts, athletics, legal aid, doctors in war zones, and many other worthy causes.<\/p>\n