Yin and Yang
As the holiday season approaches I've been doing a lot of thinking about needs and wants. I've noticed that while I have everything I could possibly need in order to sustain my life I always want more. Oh, you've got more food I'll have a second helping. Oh look, Nintendo Wii comes out this weekend and even though you already have a 360, that Wii sure looks nice. Man, would it be nice to have a laptop, or to get Vista when it comes out. Those Bron's at Finish Line sure look nice. Want. Want. Want.
Tonight we watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in which the featured family was one where the 20-something Mom was full-time breast cancer awareness advocate after witnessing her own mother's struggle to beat breast cancer. After dedicating her life to fighting breast cancer she herself was diagnosed breast cancer and it was currently in remission. This women had dedicated her life to helping others, and all I can think about half the time is what stuff I want to buy.
Where I work you can designate part of your check to go to charity. The first couple of years out of college I donated about $10 or $20 a paycheck to the United Way. After that I decided I would like to keep that cash and volunteer my time instead. I volunteered for exactly one thing and that has been the extent of my personal community involvement in the last two years. The problem is that I am not good at actively seeking out volunteer opportunities. When someone asks me if I would like to help out with something then I usually will find the time, but I do not get excited about cold calling someone and volunteering my services.
When I was growing up my parents always did a good job of taking us to church, nearly every Sunday we were there. I always bitched about it, but mainly because I found the sermonizing part of it EXTREMELY boring. I always liked the social aspects of it, especially Sunday School, and Youth Group. Looking back at that time in my life I see that it was easy to find opportunities to do good for the world, something that I feel like I am sorely lacking right now. I'm pretty sure recycling and buying a programmable thermostat don't count too much on the scale of helping humanity.
I feel like I've been sucked too far into the consumer culture and because of that I haven't been doing a good job of helping other people out. I need to strike a better balance between helping myself and helping others. I'm not sure where to start, but something needs to change. In my past church has provided avenues to help, but currently my mindset is about 75% against going to church because I have mixed feelings on religion. I would like to find something where I can make a difference that will be easy for me to get my foot in the door. There are so many bad things in the world, there's got to be something I can. Send me some ideas and/or links.
Tonight we watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in which the featured family was one where the 20-something Mom was full-time breast cancer awareness advocate after witnessing her own mother's struggle to beat breast cancer. After dedicating her life to fighting breast cancer she herself was diagnosed breast cancer and it was currently in remission. This women had dedicated her life to helping others, and all I can think about half the time is what stuff I want to buy.
Where I work you can designate part of your check to go to charity. The first couple of years out of college I donated about $10 or $20 a paycheck to the United Way. After that I decided I would like to keep that cash and volunteer my time instead. I volunteered for exactly one thing and that has been the extent of my personal community involvement in the last two years. The problem is that I am not good at actively seeking out volunteer opportunities. When someone asks me if I would like to help out with something then I usually will find the time, but I do not get excited about cold calling someone and volunteering my services.
When I was growing up my parents always did a good job of taking us to church, nearly every Sunday we were there. I always bitched about it, but mainly because I found the sermonizing part of it EXTREMELY boring. I always liked the social aspects of it, especially Sunday School, and Youth Group. Looking back at that time in my life I see that it was easy to find opportunities to do good for the world, something that I feel like I am sorely lacking right now. I'm pretty sure recycling and buying a programmable thermostat don't count too much on the scale of helping humanity.
I feel like I've been sucked too far into the consumer culture and because of that I haven't been doing a good job of helping other people out. I need to strike a better balance between helping myself and helping others. I'm not sure where to start, but something needs to change. In my past church has provided avenues to help, but currently my mindset is about 75% against going to church because I have mixed feelings on religion. I would like to find something where I can make a difference that will be easy for me to get my foot in the door. There are so many bad things in the world, there's got to be something I can. Send me some ideas and/or links.
posted by Chris at 6:41 PM
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