So, let me start by saying that I am not into resolutions. At all.
But there has been a confluence of things swirling around my head for the past few weeks. The “Occupy” movement has been both an inspiration and a let down. And my recent involvement in a church-related program, Mission 1, has me motivated to do more hands-on giving.
Mission 1 was a national program through the UCC. I saw information about it while cruising through the ucc.org website, which I am wont to do. They had set some lofty goals – collecting over 1 million food items for local food pantries around the country, writing over 11,000 letters to US Senators and Representatives about food-related issues, and donating over $111,111 each to Neighbors in Need and for East African Disaster Relief through the UCC – all within 11 days (11/1/11 – 11/11/11). Wow! How cool is that? I immediately contacted my pastor and asked if we could participate and he said yes (of course).
So, she who comes up with the brilliant idea must implement it. After picking the brains of a few other members I came up with some major goals for our little congregation – collecting over 5,555 items of food, sending 111 letters, and having over 55 people send in donations. All this for a church that averages about 100 people at Sunday services. We decided to do a door-to-door food drive, set up bins at local businesses and offices, set aside a Saturday to have a tent setup at church to receive donations from the community, organized the letter-writing campaign, and ….I think that’s it. This involved a lot of “marketing” to the congregation and the local community – I was a press release-writing, Facebook eventing, signmaking, event-coordinating machine. I had a small cadre of people who stepped up to help with different aspects of the program and we kicked it into high gear starting in mid-October.
We received press in the local paper and TV stations. We had donation bins set up in grocery stores. We had people who walked literally miles of streets for our door-to-door food drive. We had people who looked like they needed our help donating a few bucks to us as we held out donation buckets on the street. We came together as we never had before, we had people from the congregation step up and become shining stars during this process. I could literally watch as they “caught the spirit” – it was a really exciting time for all of us.
Our final tallies were 6,235 items of food, 141 letters written, and 67 donations made. A truly awesome accomplishment for our little congregation!
But, me being me, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what more I could have done - what other businesses could I have hit up, how many more blocks could I have covered for the door-to-door drive, how could I have organized it better? I was exhausted but glowing by November 11 and the following week when we delivered all of the food I was positively ecstatic. It was a similar rush to what I felt when I was in New Orleans helping rebuild a church. I love seeing the concrete proof of all of my hard work. It helps me visualize all the people that will be directly affected by the work.
And then there’s this little nugget I recently read that indicates that people that give to others are happier than those that spend on themselves. Something I can attest to, at least anecdotally.
So enough about that, on to Occupy. I admit to a love/hate with the Occupy movement. I love that it has highlighted the many inequalities and injustices going on in this country every day. BUT, I need more action from the Occupyers – they need more strucure and more incremental concrete goals. The Tea Party has the backing of billionaires (Koch brothers!!) to help them with organization, which has made it so vocal and powerful. A billionaire angel would be fab, but even without one we need a organized network. Talk is good, action is better.
So, I’ve been mulling over what more I can do to make the world a better place, what more I can do to leave a good example for my children so that they will make the world a better place after I’m gone. What are the issues that are important to me and what things can I do to improve those situations. And I also want to test this “giving makes you happier” hypothesis.
So to wrap this all up in a bow I present Revolution Resolutions. Each month of 2012 I’m going to tackle a specific new action to help improve my/your/our world. It may be eating entirely vegan for a month, seeing how little garbage my family can produce in one month, working with a specific organization for a month. We’ll see. I know for the entire month of January I am going to help out one charitable organization every day. It may be a (small) monetary donation, a direct donation (like pet food for a local no-kill shelter), or volunteering at the organization itself. In February I am helping put on a peaceful demonstration in support of gay marriage – so I’m thinking that will be Marriage Equality month. I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a WV Marriage Equality organizaton so February may be the month for that. I’ve also been thinking about planting vegetables around our church – to feed both our church community and to donate to a local food pantry. And I’m also planning another mission trip with my church so there will definitely be a “mission month” when we will be in full swing with fundraising and planning for the trip.
So that’s it – “big” ideas to take into the community and “small” ideas that we implement at home – all brought into the light through resolutions I create in my life to help with the broader progressive revolutions going on in the world. I can make this world a better place, all I have to do is take mindful action.
Give, and then give again.
