Holidays are a time to give, a time to be grateful for what providence has bestowed on us and do our bit for the less fortunate.  We in America are givers.  We gave $260 billion or more in charities for the year 2005.  In our family we do our bit and ensure 10% of our earnings are earmarked for philanthropy.  We deal with some very good charities, but there are some that leave a lot to be desired.

A few days ago a routine stop at the mailbox started a mini debate between the wife and me.  It was about my dumping of a bunch of charity-based mails into the trash without bothering to open them.  I had my justification, but to my wife, when it comes to helping the needy and given the holiday season and spirit, no reason was good enough.  I see her point, but something had to be done.

We moved to our new home six months ago.  Soon after we moved in, we got a nice set of address labels, courtesy of March of Dimes, and a request for a donation.  We gave a $25 donation for the year as we had committed to other charities before hand; more so as a reciprocal gesture for the thoughtful address labels.  Three weeks later we received another set of address labels with a donation request.  We ignored it.  We repeated the same treatment for the next couple of mailers and then came a polite emotional taunt of a mail.  "Now that you are enjoying the labels and the notepad, have you thought of donating yet?"  Though it irritated me I decided to ignore it as well.  It was a charitable organization, after all, and not a big bad corporation.  I would ignore it.  To my dismay, my wife fell for the emotional blackmail and promptly sent in a check; a case in point that the emotional pulling of strings works.

I had to take action.  I called them up and requested they remove us from their mailers, as we were not planning on donating anymore this year.  I was promised the mails would stop.  All would be well, or so I had hoped.  It has been three months, and now we have mailers from the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and a couple of others apart from March of Dimes. Great, they decided to share my information!  Now I need to deal with a bevy of them.

I have resorted to what I can without much of an issue — dumping the mails without even getting them home, labels in tow of course.  Wife is unhappy about the situation.  She feels it is a waste of someone's charitable monies that went toward the making of the labels.  I agree.  My take is, I did not ask for it.  Add to it, I have even called to request for a stop, which has not happened.

I offered to use the labels and ignore the donation requests.  Wife is not kosher with it!  Honestly I would not be either, but it was just me messing with my wife for a few laughs.  That laughter evades us at the mailbox these days. Everyday the drill at the mailbox has me sorting the mails and forwarding the philanthropic ones unceremoniously to the trashcan.  Silence joins my wife and me till we get home and have something else to break the uneasy calm.