I'm a big fan of Patrick Rothfuss's work, so when he posted this expanded response to an AMA question on reddit, I was moved. He makes an amazing and compelling argument for helping others (by invoking cake and Bilbo Baggins!). You should really read it if you haven't.
After reading that I decided yes, I would contribute to WorldBuilders (which supports Heifer International). I contribute to other charities and non-profits, but admittedly it's always been intermittent and I can afford to do more.
So I donated.
Months passed and I received an email from Worldbuilders asking if they could speak with me about a prize I won in a drawing they had (I'd been automatically entered when I donated and I hadn't thought much about it at the time). After some back and forth and phone tag, I finally connected with them. To my surprise it was Patrick Rothfuss. Which to me was pretty freaking awesome, though I tried not to geek out about his books and derail the purpose of the call. I was a little bummed to be taking the call on my cellphone, which had a speaker that goes in and out so you can't always clearly hear when someone's speaking. Anyway, he spoke about the prize I had won and it's history with their organization. I decided that the prize was not for me and he offered to send me something else - Sandman. Since I'm a fan of the comic, I said sure.
A month passed and I didn't think much about it. Then suddenly I received an email that the package had shipped and BAM! It was at our house. Chris said it looked like I had ordered a microwave.
I opened the box and to my surprise five very large (and heavy) absolute editions plus a bonus signed copy of Melinda had appeared.
It's a really cool prize, and something I wasn't expecting when I donated. The whole reason I donated was because of the blog post, and not with any intent of winning anything. So now that I have this massive (and gorgeous) collection of Sandman comics, I feel guilty. Guilty for receiving such an awesome prize.
Basically I'm going to have to donate a whole bunch more to make up for such an awesome prize.
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