crying with oprah
The days go by so quickly, don't they? The days off? Even faster. I had a rushed trip to Dallas last Monday/Tuesday so that allowed me to only need to work a few hours on Wednesday. However, I had to fly back to Dallas yesterday. I stay here until tomorrow and then am off to Miami for some training. Then back home around midnight on Thursday. Thank goodness November will be over. It's been a rough month.
Random quote for today. No need to seek hidden meaning or link it to any other part of this. It's just the Real Simple daily quote. And a good one at that. "I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one." -Mark Twain
Ok, so I got finished with work a little early today and caught about half of Oprah. It was the second half of her Pay It Forward show. Yeah, it was a sob fest. In a good way. She gave each member of her audience a $1000 gift card sometime in October. They were to use it however they wanted to but she asked that they pay it forward. 314 people did. (I'm not sure how many people were in her audience originally--the site just says over 300). But, wow, how cool that so many people actually did it! It was crazy. They helped sick people, kids, people who were down on their luck, and some plain ol' random people. Pizza delivery guys were given $250 tips. A grandmother in a grocery store was randomly given $250. Turns out she was keeping her daughter's kids because her daughter had been in an accident the night before and was in ICU. Some people pooled their money to make a bigger impact like buying a working single mom a car. Some used it as a starting point and got other donations from area businesses and the impact was huge. We're talking $200,000 huge.
It was amazing. I think Oprah should do that maybe once a week. She could afford to lose $300,000+ a week. Ok, so maybe $500 once a month. Something. It makes me want to get out there and help. When you major in a "helping profession" in college, you tend to value the actual "helping" part. That's something I don't think I've been doing enough of lately. I've volunteered time in the past but lately it seems like I give money instead of time. Don't get me wrong, I think every fortunate person has a responsibility to help others. I'm not talking about giving money to someone who will waste it on booze, etc. But I think everyone could think of at least one cause they could support. Why not act on it? It seems like people rarely have an excess of both time and money but you usually have a little extra of one of them. Why not use it? We have so many material possessions. Why not donate to charities for Christmas gifts this year? Would you mind if that were your gift?
So that's my soapbox for today. Pay it forward... It makes at least two people happy when you do. Three if you count Oprah. Four if you count me...
Random quote for today. No need to seek hidden meaning or link it to any other part of this. It's just the Real Simple daily quote. And a good one at that. "I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one." -Mark Twain
Ok, so I got finished with work a little early today and caught about half of Oprah. It was the second half of her Pay It Forward show. Yeah, it was a sob fest. In a good way. She gave each member of her audience a $1000 gift card sometime in October. They were to use it however they wanted to but she asked that they pay it forward. 314 people did. (I'm not sure how many people were in her audience originally--the site just says over 300). But, wow, how cool that so many people actually did it! It was crazy. They helped sick people, kids, people who were down on their luck, and some plain ol' random people. Pizza delivery guys were given $250 tips. A grandmother in a grocery store was randomly given $250. Turns out she was keeping her daughter's kids because her daughter had been in an accident the night before and was in ICU. Some people pooled their money to make a bigger impact like buying a working single mom a car. Some used it as a starting point and got other donations from area businesses and the impact was huge. We're talking $200,000 huge.
It was amazing. I think Oprah should do that maybe once a week. She could afford to lose $300,000+ a week. Ok, so maybe $500 once a month. Something. It makes me want to get out there and help. When you major in a "helping profession" in college, you tend to value the actual "helping" part. That's something I don't think I've been doing enough of lately. I've volunteered time in the past but lately it seems like I give money instead of time. Don't get me wrong, I think every fortunate person has a responsibility to help others. I'm not talking about giving money to someone who will waste it on booze, etc. But I think everyone could think of at least one cause they could support. Why not act on it? It seems like people rarely have an excess of both time and money but you usually have a little extra of one of them. Why not use it? We have so many material possessions. Why not donate to charities for Christmas gifts this year? Would you mind if that were your gift?
So that's my soapbox for today. Pay it forward... It makes at least two people happy when you do. Three if you count Oprah. Four if you count me...
Comments
I don't think we can ever gauge the magnitude of the little ripples of our actions. Does that make sense?
Thanks for the reminder. But I wish I was in Oprah's original group with $1k in my pocket.