Explore Ways to Give (WTG) – A New Challenge
It is time to unleash upon myself one of my goals that seems of the more difficult to add in… the ways of giving challenge.
This is one of the goals that was the origin of this blog. It was also an attempt for me to try to get out there and do things that would extend myself a bit further than what I am used to doing. – DV
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I am a very hard worker. I come from a long line of hard workers. Although I have given some monetarily in my life, it seems like I have not given a comparable about of my time or simply of me. This has been a little bit of a disappointment to me, enough so that it has taken up some of my thought process in the last few years of my life. Now, some of my friends would say that this “disappointment” is just an example of me being critical of myself, which is, of course, probably very true; but then I look at my background and think to myself, this is one criticism that probably doesn’t hurt me much.
The rationale…
You see… I have came from a family that started out very poor. Hard work was a badge of responsibility. How could anyone slight a person, or tell a person that they were doing wrong if they provided monetarily for the well being of their children? The trap, as I saw it, was that in a world where the sacrifice of the hard worker was so highly rewarded, the “monetary solution” becomes the proverbial all-useful-hammer used on all the nails (issues) of that world. What better gift to give than those forged from the hoarded bars of gold collected from the sweat and toil of the heroic? What solutions more quick and meaningful than those deftly delivered with shavings of that gold? And if you have gold, what better way to use it?
In the driven world of the poor hard worker, where survival is first thing on their minds, the drive seems to stay long after the need for the intensity of that drive is required.
There certainly is no crime to this, it seems a common attribute of human nature. But in my childhood world, the pattern that was formed was that not only were solutions to every problem forged with money, money also became an easy form of love. Sentiment and thoughtfulness became a rare occurrence, where those things were sacrificed for the reward of that drive that gave the impression of charity and reasonable parentage. Rationalization for hard work became the mainstay for why there was no time to provide the forms of love and generosity that came not of drive but of something different.
In the luxury of retrospect, it became clearer to me that although money seemed the gift of the driven; patience and time seemed the currency of those with heart. Or was it?
Yes, this can be a case of “the grass is always greener”. A simplification and judgmental approach to viewing my life and my generosity in general. We give that what we can, right? Maybe giving what is easy, to me, seems a failure because of that same drive that I was trained so well in, in my youth? (This is getting deep…)
So… the challenge…
I thought I would give myself about 30 days off before I would start moving a little more in this direction, and that time is about here. In that 30 days I have talked with various people in my life, close and far, about ideas for various ways to give. I’m hoping to come up with a few of them, and some will be easier than others. Some will be so easy all someone has to do is install and configure a program on their computer. That’s not so bad. I suppose giving what is easy is still giving… and perhaps the art in giving is giving what is truly needed.
Perhaps, giving in any way that we can, in a thoughtful manner, is a better consideration…
So what ways can we give…? That is the challenge.
In applying moderation to this challenge, I have not promised myself that I will do all or any of these ideas. The overall challenge to myself is to do something that I have wanted to do, which is explore ways of how I could give back to the world other than monetarily. The outcome or actions, past that of this challenge, are yet to be determined.
If you have some ideas… please comment. I think this one challenge could turn into something rather fun….
-DV
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