This summer, I read a couple of small collections of poetry that were given away by the Salesian Missions in the 20th century (The Way and Priceless Gifts). Late last week, I learned that I myself was on a Salesian Mission fundraising list:
I’m on a lot of Catholic charity fundraising lists since I subscribe to First Things (which is turning more into what the National Review used to be back in the old days rather than a Catholic magazine per se–it even has a lot of writers that used to or still write for the National Review and is getting into the habit of reviewing their books), Touchstone (which I will let lapse as I have not found it particularly engaging), and The New Oxford Review.
It’s possible that I’ve gotten Salesian Missions pitches for years and have not paid attention. They have not, however, had little poetry collections to my sadness.
I mean, I open all the pitches and harvest anything useful. Most of the time I collect the address labels which are so popular now (one day, the return address labels will stop coming, and I don’t want to have to buy my own like it’s the Reagan-Bush years, for crying out loud). Sometimes I get a notepad (I have not only a drawer full of them with my name on it, but many with my sainted mother’s name on them–I should probably make more to-do lists or something). I get little feet medallions, angel coins, and a rosary once. But no collections of poetry from Salesian Missions.
Maybe that’s reserved for the donor lists. Maybe I should send them $5 sometime and see what I get.
I did get a couple of Christmas cards out of this envelope. Perfect for second-strike Christmas card capability. Or for if we find we have enough leftovers from years past so that we do not need to buy a box this year. Especially the ones with glitter on them.