Giving is not an easy gesture but it can have long-lasting effects on the person receiving. The sixty four million dollars question is that, what do you prefer, giving or receiving? Many people around the world prefer to receive donation,money, gift items and everything. Have you ever thought about the positive effects of giving? Have you thought about how just giving something to someone else who really needs it may reduce your stress and make you happy and make you satisfied with life? Think about it for some seconds.
In my quest for answers to this very question that have invaded my mind, I coincidentally spoke with Dr. Cesar Bentacourt of La Sabana University in Colombia on a very cold and wet day in Bogota. His words were completely revealing. We were just talking about generosity, charity, philanthrophism, peace, joy and happiness. In fact, this is going to be a revelation you have never imagined and you will be surprised. Dr. Cesar defined philanthrophism as generosity which may have arisen because of fame but charity as an act of helping people without looking for the reduction in tax payment or anything in return. He further said that “charity is a solution for stress“. I have never thought about that until that very day I spoke with Dr. Cesar. This is without a shadow of doubt on my mind that I realized that my interviewee had a philosophy of giving which is a bit difficult to explain to people who don`t believe in giving.
I would like to invite you to participate in the metaphoric classroom of generosity. First of all, you need to have it clear on your bright mind that, charity is different from philanthropism as explained above by Dr. Cesar. Charity is giving without looking back or trying to get something back. Do you have this spirit of giving?
Furthermore, can we say that giving wholeheartedly to people in need in our community, neighbourhood and society is something wrong? Many people do not believe in giving which is really mindboggling in our 21st century full of abundance and simultaneously full of waste , abject penury and sheer individualism.
Do not get me wrong, I am not clamouring for utopic world of equality. It is quite difficult to have a world of perfect equality where everybody is rich. Come to think of it, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer but we need to do something to bridge the gap. At least we need to give something to other people who we think need it out of the abundance of our heart. It is not just about giving money. We can give knowledge, smile, food, used clothes and other useful things.
Finally, if everybody changes his or her philosophy of giving, I`m sure the rate of crime may reduce. We may have less stress, more peaceful society with abundance of intrinsic and extrinsic happiness. Now think about this question. What is your philosophy of giving?
Written by Austin Fabumuyi