Sharani

The recent prominence of the new reality TV show called Oprah’s Big Give has brought my attention back in time to a blogging initiative from exactly three months ago today. BlogCatalog’s group called Bloggers Unite sponsored an Acts of Kindness Day last December with the intent of bloggers engaging in an act of kindness followed by blogging about it. In part a contest, one of the judges, Richard Becker, has kept the spirit alive by profiling various winning participants on his blog Copywrite, Ink.

Many of the participants weighed in on the contradiction of drawing attention to themselves and the preference for anonymous self-offering. Yet we also discussed how kindness can be contagious and that in talking about it seeds of inspiration for future kindness might grow.

One possible window beyond this conflict over intentions and charitable actions comes from Eastern spiritual wisdom. My spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy created an international humanitarian aid organization as part of his spiritual mission but emphasized that a spirit of superiority/inferiority would taint one’s efforts. Instead he taught and expressed a spirit of oneness and universality. He named the service organization run purely on volunteer efforts Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles. Sri Chinmoy states,

“Our humanitarian service is not our self-motivated, condescending act of charity to the poor and needy. It is a gigantic opportunity to feed, nourish and strengthen our own poor brothers and sisters so that they can, side by side, march along with us to proclaim the world-oneness-victory of God the Creation.”

Another renowned figure in India’s spiritual lineage, Swami Vivekananda, echoes the same perspective of viewing all human beings as being important in the eyes of God and that the person doing the giving receives more than the person receiving.

“Do not stand on a high pedestal and take five cents in your hand and say, ‘ Here, my poor man,’ but be grateful that the poor man is there so that by making a gift to him, you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver.”

Vivekananda also eloquently expresses this concept of the brotherhood and sisterhood of all with his following words:

‘Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you - but do not think of that now. It will come back multiplied - a thousandfold - but the attention must not be on that. You have the power to give. Give, and there it ends. ” Thus SpakeVivekananda

Since I felt like the Acts of Kindness Day (in my case 9 days of activities) did indeed impart a host of special blessings and learning, I eagerly tuned in to Oprah’s reality television show with the theme of charitable giving. While the three episodes I watched brought tears to my eyes in heart-rending and poignant moments, I ultimately am finding it hard to resonate to a show steeped in some of the structural limitations of so-called reality TV which pits contestants against each other, eliminates them until only one remains and seems to subtly reward outrageous interpersonal behavior over quiet integrity. I guess its value may outweigh these limitations if it spreads a spirit of contagion for giving.

My vote for a recent television spotlight on a charitable organization rather goes to 60 Minutes for their coverage of Remote Area Medical. Watch the episode here:

The nonprofit charity provides free medical, dental and vision care in weekend clinics. The relief efforts began primarily in under-developed countries but lately have concentrated sixty percent of their efforts in the United States serving uninsured or under-insured individuals. The founder Stan Brock, born in England, lives very simply and gives his all to offering health care to those in need. After you watch this video about this amazing spirit of self-giving and teamwork, I think you will agree that this effort is nothing less than heroic and makes you wish you were a doctor just so you could take part in this very worthy cause.

December 17th is Acts of Kindness Day at BloggersUnite - Bloggers Unite is part of blogcatalog, a social blog directory that lists blogs by topic.

They call their efforts “an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference…”

I love the idea of committing random and in this case not so random acts of kindness. With this initiative, the idea is to have hundreds of people all over the world offering some moment of kindness and then blogging about it afterwards.

In the spirit of Laura Stockman, the 10-year old girl who is doing 25 things during the month of December in the spirit of the Christmas season, I want to try to do 9 things - the number of days between Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 - ideally one thing each day. Today will be day one instead of day only. I felt as if my ideas on only a couple of days notice were not sufficient enough to make a decent splash if I limited it just to Dec. 17th.

So what to do? This morning after I finished my daily session of prayer and meditation I was seized with excitement and anticipation in coming up with 9 acts of kindness instead of just one to do today. I jotted down the following brainstorm ideas:

• Give a 50.00 gift card to the local supermarket I received as a holiday present from my union at work to a friend who recently lost his job and hasn’t started collecting unemployment yet. He said he has virtually no savings so I know he needs this supermarket gift card much more than I do.
• Set up a candle group at Gratefulness.org/candles for a friend who has been confined to a hospital bed for over a year.
• Bake gingerbread men and bring in for co-workers plus as a holiday gift for the chiropractor’s office when I go for an appt. on Friday.
• Give away a seldom-offered coupon for the Christmas Tree Shop to someone with a large carriage of items who does not have the coupon from the newspaper.
• Try to become a Santa elf for the post office and purchase gifts for someone who sent a letter to Santa through the local post office. Beanelf.org
• Donate toys for a local Toys for Tots holiday gift drive. Cardi’s Furniture stores are accepting items.
• Put a 20.00 bill instead of a single into a Salvation Army kettle outside the supermarket.
• Pay somebody’s gas or drive-through order behind me in line.
• Go visit the 91-year old gentleman I met while walking in the neighborhood on my lunch hour. *** I called his daughter today and he passed away Nov. 28th as well as her husband passing away today. This plan is now modified to me going to her house after work to pick up her late husband’s library materials to return them for her.***

Do you have any other ideas for me to do? I welcome all comments and suggestions and am feeling so inspired to try to extend the Acts of Kindness Day into a whole week!

Related: My blog post at the Sri Chinmoy Centre site about befriending the 91-year old neighbor to my workplace while out walking. A Friendly Reminder