Thanks to a bunch of y'all online friends, I raised a respectable amount of money for CROP, and tossed in my own donation as I promised, so I felt okay about walking. I still felt pretty awkward about the walk itself, though. In spite of being part of the DPC 'team', as of Sunday morning I was expecting to drive downtown by myself and hope to connect with someone I knew there. At pretty much the last minute someone asked if I wanted to carpool, though, so I arrived on site with several DPC folk. There was the inevitable period of milling around while things got organized, and then we took off walking. There were 1 mile and 3 mile routes; when we reached the dividing point, I ended up with a musician I haven't had much time with, so we talked music for most of the walk.
So socially things worked out fine. As a Good Deed, however... I was profoundly uncomfortable with it and almost certainly won't do it again. When I did CROP events as a teenager, there were strong elements of education, and of awareness-raising in the community; those seem to have died out, and left a feel-good event that doesn't really accomplish anything. Not that the donations are meaningless, far from it! But the walk part of it is just for fun.
Funny bit of conversation from the walk: during morning services, I went a bit over the top and modulated up a half step for EACH verse of a 3 verse hymn-- normally I would only do so once, on the last verse. My walking buddy claims, and his wife backs him up, that when I modulated after the FIRST verse, he exclaimed "fasten your seat belts, it's CRAZY time!"
So socially things worked out fine. As a Good Deed, however... I was profoundly uncomfortable with it and almost certainly won't do it again. When I did CROP events as a teenager, there were strong elements of education, and of awareness-raising in the community; those seem to have died out, and left a feel-good event that doesn't really accomplish anything. Not that the donations are meaningless, far from it! But the walk part of it is just for fun.
Funny bit of conversation from the walk: during morning services, I went a bit over the top and modulated up a half step for EACH verse of a 3 verse hymn-- normally I would only do so once, on the last verse. My walking buddy claims, and his wife backs him up, that when I modulated after the FIRST verse, he exclaimed "fasten your seat belts, it's CRAZY time!"