"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne Frank

I've been really charitable lately. I spent part of my J-term organizing a Silent Auction to benefit Children's Miracle Network (cmn.org) and bought something at that auction; I recently bought two pairs of Toms shoes, therefore donating two pairs of shoes to children who need them (toms.com); I also got a red thread, which helps victims of sex trafficking (redthreadmovement.org); I adopted a soldier with my roommate, Zoe (Adoptaussoldier.org); bought mittens to benefit Habitat for Humanity; Created a Kiva account so I can lend money to people who need it around the world (Kiva.org); and spent my Saturday working at a Feed My Starving Children food packing event here at school (at which I bought this really cute bracelet that provided some 37 meals to starving children).

Most of this is just coincidentally happening at about the same time, but I think it also helps that I worked full time all through J-term, so I have a bunch of money. It's so much easier to be charitable when you have money.

All of these good actions got me thinking about how easy it is to be charitable in the world now. Feed My Starving Children came to us, and I just had to walk across a parking lot to get there. People table for the Red Thread Movement outside the Caf, so I can be charitable on my way to lunch. People make facebook events inviting us to send them money through the POs and we will get some mittens! How convenient! Maybe it's just the environment at a small liberal arts college that we want to help people, but I don't think it's exactly hard to help the world outside of Gustavus either. I mean, I ordered my Toms online and so could anyone else.

And then that made me think about why people do good things for the world. And I thought about all the things I've gotten for my charitableness. A bracelet, a red thread, 2 pairs of shoes, a 8x10 print... I got paid for the organizational things I did for the silent auction, and my boss offered to pay my for working at the Feed My Starving Children event too. When you loan someone money through Kiva, you eventually get paid back. Not to mention that I got to feel really good about myself. So... do people buy Toms because they want a pair of shoes or because they want to help people who need shoes? Maybe both.

I recently read a book which talked about the religious tradition of tithing. The point of tithing 10% of your income (or whatever percent) is that you are supposed to feel the loss but recognize that it is OK and it is helping people. It helps make you less selfish. Nowadays, when you do something charitable, do you feel the loss? Do people really care about helping the world or do they need to get something out of it for it to be worth their time and money?

-Darcy