Being Point

Tag: charity

  • Service Is Being of Use

    In “The Cider House Rules,” Dr. Larch tells Homer over and over again, “You must be of use.” Service is a primary way of being “of use.”

    We live in busy and hectic times where being of charitable service has often taken a back seat to working and making money. Service to others in the form of volunteer work is a very specific way of being of use.

    Giving of one’s time in service to others is enormously fulfilling in ways that simply writing checks to charity is not. Volunteering as a worker, a board member, a teacher, a fund raiser . . . . . just the beginnings of a long list of possibilities.

    I had a wonderful friend who read to children weekly at the local library until she was 93. Renola passed away at 95, and I love her example of simple, loving, humble and joyful service.

    Who has had an effect on you with their example of service? How have they impacted your desire to be of use? Are there any service opportunities in which you would like to participate over the balance of this year?

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

  • Giving Away Money

    No discussion of MONEY would be complete without an examination of giving money away . . . . . a look at charity and philanthropy.

    Brooke Astor, one of my personal heroes, gave away over $100 million over the course of her life before she died at age 105 in 2007.

    Astor’s personal motto was, “Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around.”

    How do you feel when you donate money? What are your reasons? How pure are your motives? Do you feel any differently when an ill-kempt person is begging . . . on the side of the road, on a street corner, in front of a business that you frequented? Are you more or less likely to give there than to a charity?

    Let’s think about giving away money . . . to whom, how and why.

    Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.