Sandy Springs: An idea: Giving without getting
We live in a cause-effect society. Rub two sticks together and get fire. What goes around comes around. As Huckabee and Bellomy sing in “The Fantasticks”: “Plant a radish, get a radish.” Then there is the art of the deal. To get, one has to give. We mentally tally who owes us a favor. What, we ask of someone seeking something from us, is in it for me? Rarely do we allow that answer to be, “Nothing.”
Our karmic ledger needs to be balanced, yes? Especially with so many out of work, oil gushing into the sea — our lives have never been more unfair.
A friend runs an ad agency that employs about 400. Once at a staff meeting he asked them all to commit two picayune acts of kindness before lunch daily and another two before leaving for the day. It could be as simple as fetching the gum wrapper next to the trash can or rinsing the coffee mugs in the sink. He talked about the confirmative moxie 1,600 such acts a day would infuse into the agency’s atmosphere.
Up in Indiana, son Zach and his girlfriend Audrie discovered a feral cat and her four kittens. Over the weeks they have been putting out food so mom cat could nurse her brood. This past week they started catching the kittens, which all have been claimed by friends willing to take them in and make sure they will not produce more misborn pussycats. Nice, but not nightly news grist.
Right here in Sandy Springs the city will host the 27th Annual National Night Out (NNO) Aug. 3, 6–8 p.m., at Hammond Park. The event will include car safety seat checks; information on how to sign up for or start a neighborhood watch program; fire trucks and police cars; meeting police officers and firefighters; and information on how to be safe in an emergency.
It’s the kind of event we hope our city will host from time to time, but I don’t know how many would squawk if it never happened. But if one out of however many attend use what they learn to deal with an emergency, I’d say it would be counted as a rousing success.
We live in tough times, and cynicism is in munificent supply. Victors are those who get up one more time than they are knocked down, but many have been cold-cocked so many times they no longer know which way is up. To give without thought of getting sounds like the trait of a character from mythology.
Four adopted kittens or shaking hands with a police officer will not stem the oily global tide or create scores of new jobs, but as a wise man told me: “It’s like giving a dying goat a lollipop — it can’t hurt.” I don’t need to hear your problems, or shout mine from the rooftops. What I could use is a steady flow of sanguineness and beneficence — together both free and priceless.
Jim Osterman lives in Sandy Springs. Reach him at jimosterman@rocketmail.com
