Several months ago, I was semi-forced into doing some cleaning at my house. This was not the kind of cleaning where you pick up around the house and vacuum, but the type of cleaning where you have to open the closet, see all the junk you have accumulated, and then you have to do something about the mess that you have been hiding behind those doors.

In my cleaning, I found my five gallon water bottle that I had used to collect change, back when I was a server/bartender1. The water jug was about 1/4 full. Later, I poured all the change out onto the floor and pulled out all the quarters. The quarters alone totaled close to $200.

The joy of counting my loot quickly faded when I moved from sorting the quarters to sorting the other denominations. It was at this point that I had the idea that I should donate the rest of my change to something. I had the clever, if not corny, thought that my change could help change the world. I wasn't quite sure where, or to what cause, I was going to donate my change, but I did have a plan for possibly gaining more change while I tried to come up with a good destination for these coins that so longed to get back in to circulation.

I took the water jug, which was now somewhere near 3/16 full, to the Visio Dei building. I sat it next to the coffee dispensers2. My hope was that people would see the change jar next to the coffee and drop in whatever change they had in their pocket, sort of in exchange for the coffee. I put an extremely ambiguous sign on the jar that said something like Change: It's What's For Dinner. Sorry, wrong marketing campaign. It said Change: To cause to be different. I had found that definition on the internet and thought it was as good as anything else to put on the water jug as a label.

The jar set there for a few months. Every time I would come to the building, I would make it a point to bring change in and I would add it to the jar. I'm not sure anyone else ever added anything to the jar on their own accord. Jason would add stuff to it when I was around. I think he wanted to support me and my unknown cause, or maybe he just pitied me. Either way, he added to the funds.

This abruptly ends chapter one of my story.

1. back Since leaving the food service industry and entering a nearly cashless existence, my water jug had been neglected and left to live a sad life in the bottom of a closet under old clothes, blankets, and boardgames. My uncovering of the water jug was a joy filled event. I was like a pirate that had just discovered his lost treasure.


2. back We serve coffee at our Sunday morning gatherings. We give it away.

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