Making it better
The economic downturn is all over the news and the blogosphere. Everywhere I turn I hear gloomy news and dire predictions of things yet to come. The thing is, we’re having a good year. Sales in the Schlock store have been pretty strong. Much of this is due to the fact that we have things to sell other than just books. I suspect if we had a similar array of merchandise last year we would have seen much stronger sales last year compared to this year. But we don’t have any other year to compare to and so this year feels pretty good. Does this guarantee our future? Of course not. If people have less money to spend, then they’ll spend less of it with us. This is as it should be. Bills before books. But I can’t live terrified of that future. If all the people like me who are in comfortable circumstances hold tight to their money out of fear, then we’re contributing to the economic woes. Sensible spending inside a budget helps everyone, particularly if the spending occurs at small local businesses.
This year we’re giving more to charity and to people in need than we usually do. We’re comfortable and therefore it is our responsibility to help those who are in distress. My friendJulie Wright never walks past a street musician without giving some change. I’ve adopted the same attitude toward those Salvation Army red kettles. But today I realized that I want to be giving something more than money. When I was growing up, my family went out caroling for the twelve days before Christmas. We would pick a couple of families who we thought were having a hard Christmas and we’d show up at their door singing twelve days in a row. That was a powerful accumulation of experiences. I still remember the family whose teenage son died accidentally, the mother and kids going through a divorce, the too-sick-to-stand cancer patient. We never had trouble finding people in need at Christmas time. The caroling tradition does not work well with my family now. But today I realized I can still be reaching out more.
Starting today and continuing at least until Christmas, I am going to do something nice for someone who is not a member of my family. I’m not sure what I’ll do or for whom. The things I do will be small. The point of this is not to burden me, but to reach out and cheer up others. Sometimes the little things matter more anyway. Just today I was a recipient of one of those little things, a card with a foam snowman came in the mail and brightened my day. (Thank you S.M.) Little things can make all the difference in the world, so I am going to find some little things to do which will make the world a better place for at least one person each day.