Chasing Women and Making Money

If you spent one-tenth
of the time you devoted
to distractions,
like chasing women
or making money,
to spiritual practice,
you would be enlightened
in a few years!

Ramakrishna

I'd take some exception with Ramakrishna's remark. At some point along the evolutionary path, chasing women and making money constitute spiritual practice. Only at a given point is it prudent to leave the ways of adolescence behind and walk with eyes wide open into the adult realm of the truly spiritual.

But let's say that we have arrived to spiritual adulthood, now what? It appears that part of that new practice will include sharing. Not just sharing with family and friends, but a new sense of heart-felt responsibility for the global condition and those on it. With these new eyes, responsibility for animals count as do plants and even minerals. Maybe even some kingdoms of which we aren't even consciously aware.

Along that line, a contributor this week sent a link to www.storyofstuff.com. That entertaining as well as educational Website chronicles the chain connecting resources to production to sales to the eventual tossing of everyday stuff--all that stuff we can't live without. The narrator explained that several steps in the old linkage were left out. Like, when we've used up our own resources, why do we think it's OK to go after those somewhere else? And, what about all that trash?

Mostly these invisible steps beg the question of responsibility up and down the line. I find myself saying: "Do I HAVE to think about this? Can I just tiptoe back into spiritual adolescence for just a minute? Chasing stuff with money is so much more fun."

Everyone seems to be getting onto the sharing bandwagon, including Oprah Winfrey with something called "Big Give." Even Heineken Beer is "tapping into drinker's altruism" with its new series of advertisements that includes double coasters with the jingle "Adopt a Stranger, Share in Good." This beer purveyor, of course, wants to sell more beer with its $40 - $50 million ad campaign, but the message of sharing is telling:

"One spot features various characters passing along cold ones--such as an Indian woman in traditional garb who walks into a cowboy bar and hands a Heineken Light to a man decked out in a Stetson hat. The headline: 'Be a Beer Samaritan' " (WSJ, 4-2-08, B8.)

Although the Heineken Company touts the new ads as a way to uplift the country in a bad mood, the idea of sharing may percolate into the brains of those drinking the tasty brew. Who knows, it may be a necessary step from chasing women and making money to other more global spiritual endeavors. Even for the company.

It may not come as a surprise, but corporations evolve as do people. Along that line, many companies have been giving to charity for a long time and felt no more should be asked of them. But that is not the case any longer. Adult responsibility is the next phase to which corporations are being asked to move along with their many customers.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal explained ways corporations are contributing to global well-being that are free to those willing to take a few moments to click. Two featured search engines contribute money every time a person clicks on a search. It's only pennies a time, but these pennies add up:

"Searchkindly.org allows users to raise money for charity simply by performing Google searches on the site. Advertisers on the site pay Searchkindly according to the number of users, and all advertising revenue goes to charity. Goodsearch.com is another search engine that funds donations with advertising revenue; for every search performed on the site, roughly one cent goes to charity."

TheHungerSite.org, featured on this blog, was also highlighted this week by the Journal. This mega-Website, which originated in 1999, addresses six different issues from hunger to breast cancer, literacy, rain forests, animals and child health. Each click provides free donations that can be made daily. It takes about one minute to get through the six and each page shows what you contributed and the total. Let me tell you, the clicks add up!

"Each click on one of these sites generates a few pennies at best, but with more than five million unique monthly visitors to the GreaterGood sites at last count, the pennies add up. Last year, these sites raised $1.5 million. There is now a forum for people all around the world to take action together to support an issue, and small actions can really add up to do a lot of good."

And finally, the article noted a way to give frequent flier miles to charity. Information about that is included on each airline's Website. Again, these miles add up. WSJ revealed that "American Airlines fliers have donated more than 43 million miles; US airways gave more than 300 million miles in 2007."

While we might not want to be dragged from adolescence into adulthood spiritually, the alternative of being left behind in the dust is dire. Responsible acts of sharing time, money, clicks and miles may be the first step to that brighter future for each one of us individually and the planet as a whole.

Of Note: This photo of two purple and white crocuses was shot yesterday during a lull in the rain. You can tell they are tiny by comparing the size of the surrounding mulch and pine needles. The yellow crocuses mentioned yesterday are already gone in the pounding rain. So, these two survivors are the only flowers presently gracing the extensive perennial garden.

Today's Weather Report: More rain, all day. At 40 degrees, it's cold as well. The lady meteorologist promises snow later with almost certainty. Good day to curl up and read a book.

Gifting

No act of kindness,
no matter how small,
is ever wasted.

Aesop

The best idea of 10 I've saved for the last because it deserves a page of its own. This one could literally change the world almost overnight, but might prove too controversial to implement with any real speed.

Gift-giving is a time-honored act from one person to another. These days, gift-giving days such as birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc. are exploited by the purveyors of goods to such an extant that one giving-day runs into the next, year in and year out. News outlets provide blow-by-blow accounts of the bottom-lines of Wal-Mart, Macy's and Target at Christmas, spelling doom when enough "stuff" isn't purchased. One is made to feel she are not truly American if she does not contribute to capitalism in this way.

But something just doesn't feel right, does it?

What doesn't feel right may be the equating of love to a gift when we know that our love for another transcends a material object of little real value. In a sense, we've been brainwashed to believe this equation reflects reality. Deep in our hearts we recognize that's not the case.

OK, so gift-giving in this way bankrupts the heart, now what? How about ceasing traditional gifting and instead giving to someone or something in need? It's a pretty simple idea really. If truth be told, billions are spent each year on presents we neither need nor truly want--although we certainly appreciate the thought. Those same billions multiplied over years and years could transform the world and share the wealth of our families, communities and nations with those less fortunate.

The Internet has made this kind of giving particularly easy--and fun. Multiple Websites abound with giving opportunities. Sometimes, the recipients even share stories of what the gift has meant to them in a way that touches the heart and reinforces the threads of unity that binds all mankind.

The age-old traditional of gifting carries this one further. What is gifting? One version goes like this: when a kindness has been done to you, return a kindness not to that person but to someone else instead. In this way, acts of charity are spread exponentially like a woven tapestry of good will. Note the fact that gifting is often based on actions, thus money plays only a small role, if any.

Either of these new ideas in giving would substantially alter the external world, but maybe even more importantly, it would begin to alter the giver. How? Over time, the concept of "brotherhood among men" solidifies as a reality as the heart grows to encompass all beings. If carried out in concert as a group, this new way of sharing muscle and wealth could have a positive explosive effect to the seemingly intransigent world problems of hunger, poverty and disease.

I'm left with the thought that acts of kindness are contagious. But this kind of contagion would be positively transformative. Let's start this movement today. Will you join me? The Earth and all its inhabitants, both visible and invisible, would say "Thank You!"

Of Note: I have no idea who took this famous picture of the Earth, but THANK YOU whoever you are! Marie sent it so thanks to her as well.

Today's Weather Report: A thunderstorm, complete with lightening, descended last night around 11 pm. Thus, the snow has been eradicated like a weed in the wake of Round-up. But, cloudy it remains, just to remind us that more rain might be on the way. Bring it on! Our lake is still several feet down--or so it appears still under the ice.