Birthdays aren't all that impressive to me. Turning 23 (or any age) entitles me to none of your praise or congratulations or good wishes.

You know what you should be celebrating? How about clean drinking water and the people who make it possible?

As many of us Atlantans learned recently, it only takes one or two days of a water contamination crisis for people to go into apocalypse mode. Imagine never having clean water to begin with. That's about 10% of the world's population that suffers from poor health and lost opportunity because water is hard to acquire, dangerous to drink, and scarce.

I'd rather those 10% of humans be free to do impressive, celebration-worthy things - like innovation, art, science, literature, snowboarding tricks, bluegrass music, or the LEGO: Batman movie. And it turns out that clean water is a starting point for all of those sorts of thing.

Last year around my birthday some amazing friends and I raised an impressive $552 for Charity:Water, where 100% of donations given go toward creating sustainable, clean water sources. Out of our goal of providing clean water for 22 people, we made an impact that will help about 14. See what that was all about - and learn more about why clean water is so important: https://my.charitywater.org/james-walpole/22-for-22-james-s-birthday

I'm so grateful that we made that happen. It's ridiculous, actually, that so many people were so generous.

Well, it's once more unto the breach, good friends. This year I'm again "donating my birthday" to the good people at Charity:Water. And this year let's shoot for 23 - because we're not quitters.

I realize birthdays aren't all that impressive. But I'm still going to be bold enough to ask you again.

If you get value from me or my writing at jameswalpole.com, I'd be really honored if you tossed a couple of bucks toward this effort. No pressure - I'll keep writing for you anyway ;) If you donate $25 or more (email me if you do at james@jameswalpole.com), I'll write a short extemporaneous blog post riffing on a word/topic/question of your choosing*. I will exercise judgment about what's too personal or reprehensible - so keep it PG, y'all. You'd like that, wouldn't you?

And if you feel like giving, do it knowing that you're striking at the root of a problem with many branches. You *will* be helping people and having an impact that (like all good acts) will echo through eternity.

*Offer only valid until we hit our $710 goal, so move fast, y'all.