Each year around Christmas, we find interesting social activities. We see parties, fundraisers, etc. Charity is an interesting term. I read a great definition on charity, where it states: “your contribution is a charity, a gift that empowers and gives thanks to the healing, not the healer. It is not possible to pay enough for the gift of health you receive. What is possible is to make certain your intention is correct and pure and your offer is genuine.”
My wife and I privately do charitable works. A charity can be anything altruistic or caring of a need. The philosophy should not be to wait for a thank you, or an email or letter. It should simply be to get the job done, and move on. Usually if we do something charitable, we simply do the foot soldier work. I wrote an article two years ago about the types that stop in for a 30 minute photo op and leave.
“Sometimes, people give not because they’re concerned about somebody else’s needs, but because they want to feel good about themselves,” says Maj. Doug Hammond, pastor at the Salvation Army church on Dovercourt Rd.
“That attitude subverts what should be the main message – that everyone “is in this together, and we’re just sharing,” he says. “To give a guy a bowl of soup and make him feel like a beggar undermines everything that we do because the ultimate poverty is a loss of dignity.”
I was writing this article before I had to teach my lunch class. While warming up, the Christmas spirit was discussed by one of my students, and his family discussion on how people are tempted to spend on holidays, and where the spirit is for the less fortunate.
Another student discussed how people get a gift for a charity to wait for someone to thank them. This is the type that needs some type of public thank you.
I could not disagree more with those.
My parents were always charitable when I grew up. They gave and moved on to the next. I learned that too. In Jiu-jitsu, when you have a student who has been good to your school, but a financial setback occurs, you help them if you can. In society, being altruistic or charitable is not about helping ‘poor people’, or ‘poor kids’. It’s about giving when you understand it is needed. The great reward, and gratitude is that person gave you an opportunity to lift them that day.
East Austin has a low income housing area. My wife Chandra and I have worked with that area, and our goal is to give children hope in overcoming. The Austin Police Dept. District 3 officers are there in the event as well.
Thank you, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!
Professor William Vandry