Culture & Personal 29 Dec 2006 04:27 pm
Treading lightly and giving back
I feel pretty strongly about being a decent human being: treading lightly on the world (within reason), being generous to those in need, etc. It occurred to me the other day while I was in the process of trying to max out my credit card — yes max it out — that I hadn't given any money in over a year. To anyone for any cause. Not even the folks ringing the bells from the Salvation Army.
So I went on over to Charity Navigator to see what five-star charities they had in medical research. I picked Dana Farber just because, and I gave some money. Today I was bumbling around the web again and came across the EFF. So I decided to donate there as well, because I feel very strongly about their cause.
I paid off my credit cards yesterday — all three of them, in their entirety. That's the last of the debt that I've got, minus my student loans. (It's my goal to have those paid off by June of 2009.) I've been thinking that I need to start giving more. $100 to a charity means more to them than it does to me. That's not to say I'm rich, because I'm not. But I do like to give, and I think it's an important part of being a decent human being. Indeed, I aspire to the day when I can spend most of my time giving my money away if I choose.
Anyways, starting this June, it is my goal to donate all of my Google AdSense revenue to charity, and all of the money that I make by creating the PDFs for Ars articles to charity. That's not a lot of money, but it's something, and it's money that I consider extra that has no home in my budget that's just a nice little bonus when it comes every month. The money given away will be well worth more in terms of good feelings for me than it would be by buying something I don't need.
I don't know why I'm posting this. Maybe to remind others how much we have, and that we can share with those that do not.
