giving

I found this article on page 16 of the Marriot Alumni Journal via Merry Marleen and read parts of it to Jeffrey this morning.

John D. Rockefeller was famously quoted as saying in 1905, “God
gave me my money to use as I see fit for the benefit of my fellow man.” He believed that if he did not do so, God would take the
money back. In other words, he thought he was rich because he gave.

I decided to test this and prove the theory was incorrect, so the next time an entrepreneur told me that part of his or her
success was due to their giving, I could say,“I actually tested that, and it’s not correct.”It turns out the joke was on me. I’m going to show you how wrong I was, why I think it matters, and how it changed my understanding of charitable giving.

Reading it reminded me of one of the things I learned while in college. One day I was depressed and discouraged and homesick but I thought about how to feel better and decided to do something in secret for one of my roommates. It was so simple but I had to make myself move since I kind of wanted to continue to feel sorry for myself. I walked to town and got a pink rubber ball and stopped at an ice-cream parlor and bought 1 empty ice-cream cone, marked the ball with a red marker so it kind of looked like her favorite ice-cream-pink peppermint- and left it by the front door for her with a note. She never learned who left it there but I felt better. It was the first time I really realized the link between me doing something for someone else and feeling better myself.

So if you are in the doldroms pick yourself up and give to someone else.