There’s a lot of ice in my life right now. Even without the homeland people doing ice-hearted things in our name. The ice I’m thinking about is of the Arctic kind. Kevin Barnett baited me into going with him to float the Canning River  the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean–next week. Could be bears and mosquitos and wolves, too. And…..ice.

The day I get back from the Tundra Kelly Carpenter has talked me into more ice to help raise money for the Shalom Project of Green Street United Methodist Church (click on it to go directly to the donation page). A great deal of that work focuses on exactly the people you-know-who is demonizing–the same folks who are building our little city every day with kindness and skill. These are people you want to help–especially now.

The funding gimmick is that I have to sit on….ice…..until people donate $1,500 in my name. No bears, mosquitos or wolves. But serious ice. I could be sitting there until hell and my yonder parts freeze over.

Help!

Here’s how: I have written a pretty good new book—Speak Life: Crafting Mercy in a Hard Hearted Time. Emerging from the rich learning of Stakeholder Health, the book explores how we can lead lives that nurture the lives of the people and neighborhoods we love. It’s won’t tell you this or that trick that makes shalom happen without breaking a sweat. The opposite, in fact: how do we live lives year after year after decade marked by generosity and kindness, mercy and justice.

Shalom, in short.

I will mail a personalized signed copy of my new book to the first 100 people who give $50 to the Shalom Project. Click right here to go to the donations page: Shalom Project. I’ll even include a picture me…. signing your book….. while sitting on the ice. That there is a collector’s item.

And the money goes to….Shalom. You would think it would take more than $50 to create Shalom. It may, but this is a good start.

If you are opposed to Shalom, leaves you could take $35 and  buy your a of Melania’s jacket that she wore to her husband’s child internment camps. This would still leave you $15 to buy a copy of my book from Amazon, which I’m fine with. But even if you buy her jacket, she won’t sign it for you! The jacket says right on the back that she doesn’t care and doesn’t expect you to.

Talk about ice.

I think you care. A lot. Now.

So that’s the deal: $50 bucks gets you a signed book and a little seed of Shalom. That’s crafting mercy in a hard-hearted time. If I had any idea it could get this cold, I would have changed the title to Speak Life: Crafting Mercy in an Ice-Hearted Time.

Let’s melt it.