Cabeeb

February 28, 2010

Your Own Politik

This is a quasi-followup to my previous post, Meet Richard Ssempijja.

This past summer when I started supporting Richard was a time when my concept of charity, generosity, philanthropy, social justice, and a personal responsibility for the well-being of the world as a whole began to shift. Though Richard was a part of it, there were countless relationships, conversations, articles and books that contributed (plus a little boy named Christian).

Whatever the reasons, my view of philanthropy is staggeringly different than it was a year ago. And that shift has affected how I think of nearly every facet of life in one way or another.

To put it simply, I started caring.

Whether you’re a Christian or not, you’ve always heard that it’s your “responsibility” to help people less fortunate, and support causes that are important and right. What does that mean though? To what extent? How do can really quantify that responsibility? How should I actually apply that responsibility to my life?

What typically ends up happening is that it comes out of feelings of guilt. You see the white-bearded man on television holding an impoverished child and decide that $1 a day is a fair price to alleviate the feelings of guilt that slightly prickle your heart. You see Haiti ravaged by an earthquake, and though the concept of 100,000 people dying doesn’t fit inside your mind, your pity is stirred and you text $10 to the Red Cross. Phew; you’re at ease until the next major catastrophe.

That’s not taking responsibility; that’s self-preservation. Responsibility is taking a vested interest in something, and devoting yourself to it. The only responsibility that most of my charitable actions have filled is my responsibility to keep myself comfortable. And that can only go so far. I will only help others enough to keep myself appeased. It’s fickle, ungrounded, and ultimately doomed.

What changed that cycle was when I actually cared about what I was supporting. Getting to that point can be amazingly difficult. How can you make yourself care for something? It’s nearly impossible. I kind of tricked the system, though; instead of trying to make myself care for the first charity I came across, I looked around found charities that won me over with their vision and message. I read about different organizations, I asked friends about who they supported and why.

So, when I finally started to support an organization, I already had invested myself into them. I knew who I was supporting, and why it was important. It was just the natural outpouring of my genuine concern, rather than me blindly trying to calm my unease and possibly making a little difference in the world too.

When I finally experienced that – the joy and satisfaction of giving to something I really cared about – it made me want to find more causes to support. It wasn’t a chore anymore, it was love. It was a way to express my love and concern about someone or something, and actually do some real good in a way that personally resonated with me.

We’ve all experienced that with people we know – we do something for them because we love them. Not because we have to, or because they told us to, or because we are afraid to face the consequences if we don’t. But because it is one of the ways that we express our love.

That’s one reason that Compassion International, or similar organizations are so brilliant. With so many charitable gifts, you toss an organization some money and say “Here… do something with this.” and you wash your hands of it. But with Compassion, you spend time searching for a child that you want to support. You read about dozens of different children, look at their pictures, read their stories, and then finally you say “That’s the one”. You’ve finally taken responsibility.

At that point, the organization doesn’t matter anymore. It makes no difference that you’re giving to Compassion; you are supporting the child that you yourself chose. That’s what matters. Richard matters.

As it becomes clear to all of us as we get older, love is a choice. Of all the children whose pictures I saw, whose stories I read, I chose to love Richard. Of course, I was and am concerned for all of the children I saw, and I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m supporting another one. But something about Richard stirred me; maybe it was that innocent smile or the way he was slouching his arms behind his back. Whatever it was, I reached out and said “Him.”

For me, it was the first time I’d truly felt the joy of giving to those less fortunate. If you haven’t experienced that, I highly, highly recommend that you look into an organization like Compassion. It really takes becoming invested in a cause, mission, family, region, life or message before you can truly feel that joy that we’re all meant to feel. And once you have, you’ll never be able to go back to the detached form of appeasement giving that we’ve all known for so long.

Give me love over this.

4 Posted in Personal | Charity | Compassion | Compassion International | Giving | Love | Philanthropy | Politik | Responsibility | Richard Ssempijja