On Giving

Hola mi gente,
Today for the first time in a long time, I looked at a bottle of rum and I felt a faint but familiar stirring inside. No, I’m not going to pick up, but I was reminded that the seductive and insidious lure of numbing unwelcome feelings is always just an arm’s reach away.

Sometimes giving back what has been so freely offered gets me out of my head. You know, my head? That dangerous neighborhood where I might get mugged. LOL I was laughing the other day because I had three quarters in my pocket and you can’t buy even a candy bar with three quarters. So I gave my treasure to the brother on crutches who stands by the stairwell to the number 2 train at the Park Row station. I thought he could probably make better use of it.

Desperately seeking to make gratitude -- giving thanks -- something more than just a thought in my head, I looked for inspiration and that brought me to the following last night.

Life is good. I figure if I say it enough times, it will make it true.

On Giving

-- Kahlil Gibran: The Prophet, Giving, Chapter V

Then said a rich man, “Speak to us of Giving.”

And he answered:

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have -- and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
 
And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall someday be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’.

You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.”
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
 
And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life -- while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers -- and you are all receivers -- assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.

Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be over-mindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.

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My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

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Generosity

¡Hola! Everybody...
We live in a time where good is bad and bad is good. Toxic waste is good for you and corporations that bilk the taxpayers for billions of dollars continue living off the public teat while organizations that fight for a living wage and to register poor people to vote are marginalized.

Interesting times we live in...

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-=[ Religion and Altruism ]=-

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

-- Luke 6:38 (New International Version)

The following will not win me many friends... LOL!

In a society that can only think of morality in religious terms, it would be easy to assume that there’s a strong connection between religion and good. For example, many Christians, often with tears in their eyes, demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. Of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom?

“Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon?

The sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity, like most spiritual disciplines, contain potent reminders to be compassionate and charitable.

These admonitions, however, have not been sufficient to prevent a wide range of horrors under the justification of one religion or another. From the Hebrews, whose jealous God compelled them to destroy innocent men, women and children, to the barbaric Christian crusaders, to contemporary fanatics killing in Allah’s or Jesus’ name. Less known, but just as disturbing are the plethora of studies demonstrating that churchgoers are more intolerant of ethnic minorities than non-churchgoers.

When we turn to the topic of altruism, we discover that there is almost no connection between religious affiliation and caring or helping behavior. This conclusion has emerged with remarkable consistency from many types of research spanning many years. One study of about 2,000 Episcopalians in the 1950s showed no discernible relationship between church involvement and charitable acts. In another questionnaire-based study of altruism involving several hundred male college students in 1960, there was only a slight correlation between altruism and a belief in God, and none at all between altruism and of religious participation. In a random study of adults in 1965, the non-religious were as frequently rated as being a good Samaritan, possessing love and compassion for their fellow human being, as well as being humble, as the most devout and religious of the group that was studied.

Two experiments with undergraduates during the 1970s found essentially the same findings: In one, students who believed in the Bible’s accuracy were no more likely than others to come to the aid of someone in the next room who seemed to have fallen off a ladder. In the other study, students were assessed as being “Jesus People” (born again Christians), conventionally religious, nonreligious, or atheist. There was no statistical difference among these groups in their willingness to volunteer time with developmentally delayed children or to resist the temptation to cheat on a test (the only group in which the majority did not cheat: the atheists).

In 1984, a researcher who surveyed more than 700 people from different neighborhoods in a medium-sized city expected to find that religious people were especially sociable, helpful to their neighbors, and likely to participate in neighborhood organizations. Instead, she reported, religious involvement was unrelated to these activities. Finally, a study of people who risked their lives to rescue Jews from the Nazis found that “rescuers did not differ significantly from bystanders or all non-rescuers with respect to their religious identification, religious education, and their own religiosity or that of their parents.”

It seems, then, that religious affiliation by itself has nothing to do with an evolved level of moral reasoning or altruism.

Love,

Eddie