Giving Without Gaining

One of the first Bible parables I learned in my Catholic grade school was about the rich man and old woman. I'll give you the synopsis: outside of a temple there was a place for people to give donations (some things about Church are timeless). An old woman goes up with her purse, opens it and finds only two coins left. Without a word she puts her last two coins in the box and goes on her way. Shortly afterward a very rich man with a sack full of gold arrives at the temple and pulls a handful of coins out of the sack, making an effort to be very conspicuous as he drops the money in the box. At this point the nun telling us this story asked which person had given more. The answer was the old woman because she still gave even though she didn't have much and she did so without expecting any attention or praise in return. The message was very clear: charity isn't the time to strut. This message clearly stuck with me because I have long maintained that charity is something which should be done because you really want to help a cause, not because you are secretly trying to help yourself in some way.

I've been seriously impressed with how Boston has come out this week to support not only the victims of last Monday's bombing, but also the survivors. The Mayor and the Governor have set up the OneFund and in less than a week it has made over $7 million. I've always said Boston takes care of its own and the outpouring of support has proven that. Still, for every person who goes to a prayer service because they really just want to send some good thoughts towards the people who need in at this moment, there are just as many who are there because they think it will get them on the news. Even worse are the companies which want you to donate to the the OneFund, but do so through their website. They say it is so they can match donations dollar-for-dollar, but only up to a certain number. Well, if you are only going to match donations up to $100,000, then just give $100,000 - don't ask people to jump through hoops first, especially when what they are really doing is finding another way to collect your information. It really lessens some companies in my eyes. They will have plenty of time to harvest email addresses to sell to their corporate partners some other time, so if there was ever a time to forgo normal shady business practices this is it.