Parrothead Ramblings

I was leafing through this morning's Arizona Republic when I came across an article on the upcoming season of American Idol. It was a "Where are they now?" look at some past Idol luminaries, and one comment regarding Clay Aiken (Is it just me or is that guy creepy looking? Wait....that didn't come out right....) caught my eye. The writer, someone named Andrea Desaga Heser, had this to say about Aiken:

Yes, he sells a lot of CDs. But he sells them to a strangely overzealous cult of fans who rival Parrotheads in their scary intensity.

I'm not sure if I've been praised or insulted. Scary intensity? Now, I admit, there are some pretty strange fans out there. They're some of my best friends. Hell, I am one of those strange fans. But scary intensity?

Some 12,500 runners in yesterday's PF Chang's Rock n' Roll Marathon, the vast majority of which were running in support of those who have battled, continue to battle, or perhaps have lost their battle to cancer, might argue that scary part, Andrea. For it was those runners, hundreds upon hundreds of them, who graciously thanked the 90+ Parrotheads who manned Marathon Water Station #18 on the full-marathon route. That's 90 Parrotheads who could have been hanging out on a patio, or watching playoff football, or spending time with family, but chose instead to show up at 7:00AM on a Sunday morning, freezing cold, to spend about eight hours setting up, running, and ultimately tearing down that much-needed final water station at mile 25 of a very, very long run against cancer. That's somewhere around 630 hours, given freely and with no expectation of anything but that warm, fuzzy feeling that accompanies giving of oneself to do the right thing.

In fact, this bunch of scarily intensive Parrotheads generated about 2,300 hours of service and $27,000 last year alone, in helping and serving those who are perhaps having a tough time in their lives. If you really want to know about scary intensity, ask the good folks down at the West Valley Child Crisis Center, or the United Methodist Outreach Ministry, or Special Olympics, or the Hemophilia Association, or the Thomas Pappas School, or any of the other charities helped out by local Parrotheads. Or maybe ask any one of the troops in harm's way in Iraq, who received one of the 151 much-needed packages sent over there by a few hard-working, scary, and intense Parrotheads.

And guess what? We're just one club. There's over 200 clubs just like ours, generating somewhere around $3,000,000 and 700,000 service hours worldwide last year alone.

If that's scary intensity, then just change my nickname from The Crime Dog to The Boogey Man. I'll wear it proudly.
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