Economic Giving

This Christmas season has been a very interesting case of good will and charity in the midst of an economic crisis that has come to affect not only the poor and middle class, but also the rich. The story that I am about to tell gives me hope that we as a race, that is as humans, are not as bad as I thought that we were, especially here in the United States.

My story begins about six months ago when the economy began to fall very rapidly, not that it was ever in a great state, but it seems as if it all of a sudden took a nose dive causing a massive case of anxiety and fear to sweep over this land. People now began to realize that their actions in the past had future consequences and that we as a nation could no longer be a hedonistic society. We all began to look at money in a different way and instead of spending what we wanted when we wanted to, we began to make conscious decisions to only spend what was necessary for survival, with only the occasional splurge.

Pretty soon we began to see gas prices fall, but with that blessing came a curse. People were loosing their jobs, industries were shutting down, houses were being foreclosed on, and our way of life had become something that none of us would have ever believed it would have become. This story, however, is not as depressing at it would appear, because the end chapter is one that surprised me about how this Holiday season would actually play out.

Even though people were not buying as much for themselves, which is what capitalism has taught us to do, people were instead giving. People were looking at strangers with a warm feeling of love, and instead of not using their money to buy some product that will only be used possibly only a few times, people began to give to those that were in need. As a Sociologist and a follow of YHWH this brought a smile to my face, because a great majority of people who would normally think of themselves began to see that we are all part of a larger community.

Working at Starbucks I see many people who think only of themselves, they buy their coffee for themselves and do not wish to think of the person behind them. However this season, I saw people ask the person or people behind them if they could buy their drink. This season I also saw the usual Salvation Army bell ringers infront of businesses, and almost every time I saw people either enter or leave a store, they would drop coins and dollar bills into the bucket, and although I do not know the exact amounts that they collect this year opposed to last year, it brought me joy to see people, young and old, take what they have and use it to impact people they do not even know.

Out of all of these stories and more that I have either heard about or witnessed first hand, the one that touched me the most and held the most influence in the writing of this note was one in which one person helped about 200 strangers. On Monday December 22, 2008, instead of finishing up any last minute gifts and errands for Christmas, residents of an apartment complex in Burnsville, MN (I know, ironic, but true) where forced to flee from their home when their building caught on fire. The people were left with only the clothes on their back. Christmas 2008 would be remembered as the time that nearly 200 people lost their homes, but this tale has a happy ending as well. People within the community brought clothes and other items together as donations to the survivors. That, however is not the end, an anonymous donor gave 1 million dollars to the victums which broke down into about $17,500 per apartment. Instead of only thinking of him/herself this Holiday season, this person decided to bless others. (http://www.twincities.com/ci_11290559?source=most_viewed, http://www.startribune.com/local/south/36692839.html)

The amazing part of this whole note is that people chose to do something spectactular and bring the true meaning of this season to light. I truely hope that people will continue to impact this world and change what is ment by being human back to what was originally ment to be human. I hope that this note inspires and brings the same hope that I have been filled with about how we are not really as bad as we think that we are, there is good out there, people just need to be couragous and act!