Standing outside of the library, I see symbols chalked on the ground and on the bodies of students that occupy this campus. These symbols are showing how passionate and willing young adults are when it comes to helping the struggling world around them.

This can be seen from the shirts that they are wearing to the shoes on their feet.

So why would I write about people helping people? Well, I believe we are turning charity into a trendy thing.

It has gone from a way to help others to a marketing scheme that enables people to look cool while giving a pair of shoes to a child in Africa.

It allows us to help people appreciate the life that they have, while wearing a shirt that makes us look ‘indie’.

It is not that I am against this notion of supporting organizations around the world.

It is not that I don’t believe everyone should know Bono is the most amazing person to touch this earth since the all-powerful, all-knowing sent his only begotten son.

This is more about that fact that we turned giving into a daily fashion show.

People are putting the various organizations that they give to on display.

Then again, who am I to say who should and should not flaunt all of the people they are helping.

It needs to be seen that you are saving women with breast cancer through your hat, appreciating starving kids in western Brazil with a fly hoodie, and wishing Chinese women could ride mini-horses to work instead of camels with only one hump by sporting some shoes that are two sizes too small with a little horse on the sole.

I get it, but I just don’t understand.

There are those people who are bleeding for a cause that is bigger than I can even picture at the moment.

I appreciate those people, the time they give and the energy they exude in helping to make this world a better place.

So, maybe that is also where I get confused.

Could the simplistic answer be correct in this circumstance?

Have we invested more time looking for the style of the organizational shirt to wear and not enough time looking at the vision and purpose of the actual organization?

Is it possible that it has become more important to us to gather the comfortable apparel that shows how caring we are than to actually put time into the organization?

This is the point where I should go into the story about wearing replica jerseys and watching from the sideline as opposed to wearing the real thing and getting into the game.

I will spare you that one because I really don’t care what you do and it is not my place to tell you what to do.

I just hope you actually think about what you are wearing when you are wearing it.

And, for the record, I want you to know that when I buy the beer with the cool art on the side that is going to help lumberjacks in Malaysia, it is simply because I like how the beer tastes.

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