Discovering the Cure for Affluence: Giving Gifts that Change Lives

I originally shared these thoughts as an invitation for colleagues in my circle at Amazon.com to consider using the site in a somewhat different way, and to share a couple of my favourite reads on the subject of "giving". It's not that I think Amazon needed more business, or that this was the ultimate way of curing affluence. It was simply a gently poke to provoke people to think about an alternative when it came to the act of giving.

Since originally sharing this article, I've been immersed in an incredible (and at times even frustrating) discourse on the value of particular gifts, and judging the act of giving. I want to continue to share some of the knowledge mcnuggets that have come out of this exploration, because it's made me think more deeply on our individual capacity to invoke profound change where it's needed the most.

For now, let me begin here ...

The Cure for Affluence ...

For $100 I got a killer set of dishes in an upscale designer boutique. They went right beside the other 4 sets that were already in my cupboard. I barely had room to store them, but boy, they sure look great when I'm eating that big pot roast and generating mounds of leftovers.

I had to have them. This set was, afterall, the new line, and it matched the colours of my comfy, middle-class kitchen perfectly. It's not that I'd ever spend $100 on designer dishes for myself, but I was given the money for Christmas, and I really wanted these dishes. Funny thing is, they made me happy for a day, and then I was back to wanting more.

More. There it is. It's that insidious beast of a word that insinuates itself into every last nook and cranny of our lives. We get the next thing on our list, but it's still not enough. More. The more you feed it, the hungrier it gets, until that four-lettered word becomes so big in our lives it almost blocks out the sun.

Feel familiar? Betrayed by that ransom twitching of your skin? It's affluence, a disease that runs rampant through our lives. But not to worry -- I have the cure.

You Know Ya Wa-nna ...

Give an Amazon.com gift certificate to a school:

click here to learn more

Your school library is probably suffering the lean times of small budgets on big diets and the apathy of patrons past. If you're here, reading this, then I don't have to tell YOU about the power of a book. Get in touch with the librarian at a local school, and ask them if the school has an account on Amazon. If not, you can let them know how easy it is to set one up. Tell them about the "Wishlist" function:

click here to learn more

It's the perfect way to invite parents to give meaningful gifts in honour of a favourite teacher at Christmas and the end of the year. Besides, teachers already have too many bath oil beads and coffee mugs, and who wouldn't want their name on a lovely book plate in the front of something that will pass through the hands of legions of children expanding minds instead? Go now. Be daring. Put down that mouse and make the call!

A Philanthroper's Heart ...

"Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day". -- Sally Koch.

Oh, what your money can do! I look at my dishes and think of the great, grand, giving things that the money could have done instead.

I could have supplied not one, but two! whole classrooms full of children in a developing country with the books and things they need to learn:

click here to learn more

My gift would have multiplied 10 times to stock two entire classrooms for a year.

The gift is part of World Vision's very special online catalogue:

click here to learn more

where I can choose gifts that change can lives, like hens and a rooster, a dairy goat, piglets, clothing, seeds and agricultural tools. Every gift is fully tax deductible, and there's something to fit every budget.

For my part, I doubled the amount spent on my dishes, sending $200 to be used by my foster child's family to acquire a plough, or small livestock, or seeds or whatever they most needed to thrive. (My 6-year-old foster son's father is a peasant farmer in Zambia who depends on seasonal rain for a livelihood). I can't begin to tell you how much more joy my heart is filled with giving this small gift than those darn dishes will ever bring me in a lifetime.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

"That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love". -- William Wordsworth.

Skip the flowers, and tell your mom how much you love her by stocking a medical clinic in Africa, where, everyday, mothers carry their sick children for miles only to find out that the doctor has run out of basic supplies:

click here to learn more

Your gift will provide enough supplies to stock a medical clinic serving hundreds of families. When you give this gift (and any other through this catalogue) you can customize a card for your mom to tell her about the people who have received your gift of hope in her name.

If you're aiming for extravagance, skip the fur coat and go to the website above to donate the building of a new home for a family in mom's name. Single moms with children or orphans all alone often live in crumbling huts that provide meager shelter from the elements. Instead you might buy a share in digging a deep-water well to supply safe drinking water for their village, or filling a stable with 8 food-producing animals, or even building a school for an entire village full of kids.

My Fair Share ...

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has". -- Margaret Mead.

Perhaps those lovely dishes in your own cupboard make you think of empty tummies in faraway places. I'd love to donate two oxen and plough to help my foster child's father better cultivate the land, but I can't afford the $700 for the gift. The solution? Buy a share! I can be a partner in the purchase with others. When you can't afford to give the gift yourself, but your heart is aching at the possibility of what that gift could really do, skip sending the chain mail saying Bill Gates is tracking that email and going to make you all rich, and email this guide inviting friends to pitch in ten bucks to help buy that gift! There's a link called "E-mail this guide to a friend" at the top of this page, allowing you to send it along with your invitation now ...

More Cures for a Hungry Heart ...

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world". -- Anne Frank.

Giving is an investment that pays back tenfold, and whose bounty continues to fill your life for years to come. It's contagious. It's transforming. It's the best cure for affluence I know.

Instead of dishes, here's a few things you might consider giving yourself as a gift:

James and Lisa Grace give us a wonderful road map to follow in The Good Deed Guide.

In The Giving Heart: Unlocking the Transformative Power of Generosity in Your Life, "The Works" magazine columnist M. J. Ryan serves up a delicious helping of essays that encourage us to engage in small, practical activities to enrich our own life and those of others.

Other great ways to fight your wallet's "battle of the bulge" are outlined in a handful of practical actions from Laura Klotz' Saving the World in Your Spare Time.

Carpé Diem!
Sue.