The old adage that “it’s better to give than receive”, everyone nods and agrees with, oh yes I definitely like giving presents better than getting them… really? honestly? do you?
Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
Surely we all LOVE getting presents? I certainly do.
I think there are two types of giving – SMUG GIVING and NO STRINGS GIVING.
SMUG giving really needs no introduction, we all know how self-righteous we feel when we drop some money in a bucket, an envelope or donate some unwanted clothes to charity. This smugness likes to tell everyone how GOOD we are and it wants to be repaid – with moral highgound.
NO STRINGS GIVING is exactly what it says, giving unconditionally, with no strings, no repayment required, no favours owed. This is when we really tap into a higher realm of living.
Recently our washing machine broke, when you have a number of kids, as I do, washing machines become fairly essential to life. I moaned to a few people in the office, told a few friends, it’s not just the unexpected expense, it’s the hassle – get someone to fix it, remove it, replace it and then there’s the waiting in for tradesmen. Later that same day I received an unexpected text message, a generous couple offering to buy us a washing machine, in fact not just the make and model we were looking at, but a better one, and they’d even done the research for us too.
I was overwhelmed. Here was giving in its purest form. Unconditional. No strings.
Challenge yourself, watch this incredibly honest TED talk from Jessica Jackley, hear what she has to say about microfinance, people in the developing world wanting to provide for their families, their children through their own businesses.
Try Kiva, it’s a way of starting at SMUG giving – it’s pretty much risk-free, you invest, your money is used to benefit men and women all over the world who are trying to start and develop their businesses, and over time you get your money back. You can progress to NO STRINGS giving just re-invest. Again. And Again. And again. Repeat until fade. This JoinFITE youtube clip explains in exactly 1m 47s how it works.