Let's Send Some Christmas Spirit!

A friend in need could use our help

This isn’t something I normally do, but I know a good man in need of some help, so I wanted to reach out to all of you.

I’ve written before about my friend Kale Zelden, who writes at

The Underneath

. He’s also started a new podcast of the same name after his weekly “General Ecclectic” podcast with Rod Dreher/The American Conservative was retired earlier this year.

He has a lot of wisdom, and I love to see him sharing it with the world.

Kale was the guy who threw me a lifeline when I was drowning. He helped me find a new way to look at old problems, and brought me out to Providence to see Jordan Peterson live. He has consistently been the one guy I can bounce any idea off of, no matter how crazy, and he’ll help me find my way to making some sense out of it. (We went from Twitter friends to friends in real life practically overnight. That’s a rare thing.)

He’s also a dedicated educator, having taught Literature at a Catholic school for the past 18 years, and patiently accepting the somewhat meager remuneration that comes with that kind of job. It’s a passion project. He cares like crazy about those kids, and about what they bring with them into the world.

But as we all know, the cost of everything has gone up. He has tuition for his own kids to pay, along with everything else. And this month, that finally caught up to him as his blood-from-stone-budgeting ran into a situation where some late payments were taken by his bank, not merely requested.

I’ve known from our private conversations he was in a tight spot — I’ve been in one myself lately, and we commiserate sometimes — but today is the first time I’ve seen him say publicly how much this has been squeezing him. For him to show it on the outside, I know it’s weighing awfully heavy on his mind and heart. Distracting him from his duties. And since I know he doesn’t ever want to be perceived as part of the “grifter class,” I took it upon myself to ask for a hand up for this dedicated husband, father, teacher, and friend. He’s always giving. Always working, teaching, coaching, writing, helping.

I can honestly say I’ve never seen him ask for anything in return.

I just want the guy to be able to enjoy Christmas with his family without the stress of not knowing how he’s going to pay for any of it. I want him, just for the next couple of weeks at least, to be at peace, and know things are covered.

I’ve been there. I’ve been flat out broke, at Christmas, not knowing what to do, when people stepped up to help my family get back on our. It meant the world to me, and I want that for him.

So I set up a GiveSendGo for Kale and his family. It all goes to him. I’m not skimming off the top. (What do I look like, the Mafia?) It’s only been up for a short time, and due to some incredibly generous donors, last I checked he was almost to the modest goal I set of $3,000. The thing is, I don’t know how much he actually needs, so I hope folks won’t let a met goal discourage their generosity, or their Christmas spirit. I know he’s going to make good use of whatever he receives. He lives modestly. He is actively working on side hustles to pull himself out of the ditch. (Speaking of, you should go subscribe to

The Underneath

!)

This isn’t a handout. It’s a hand up.

If you can give, please do so. And thank you!