Ok, I’m not a rich woman by American standards.  We barely make old fashioned middle class….we have no savings, no stocks & bonds, no real estate save the home we live in and it isn’t paid off.  We are pretty average.  We are not Christian, yet I believe whole-heartedly in charity.  I believe if you are blessed with a good job and a secure bed and sufficient food, it is just common sense that you should help those things be part of other people’s lives, too.  So each month, I write checks to several charities that I usually select at the end of each October.

October or early November is when my “ritual” year ends, so I plan the next years financial efforts then, too.  I give money to Habitat International, to Heifer International, to the Iraq Veterans Against the Way, to Fisher House, and now to Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, too.  I also contribute to Amnesty International, ACLU, and the Environmental Defense Fund.

I get phone calls every day; and I admit I am quite snappish with some of them, especially the falsely hearty same-old-joke hired fund raisers who want to raise money for police and firemen’s widows and other assorted stuff like that.  It isn’t that I am anti-widow, it is that when I checked these charities out I found the fundraising company gets about 80% of the money.  But not every charity is a con game.  Many are quite legitimate and doing necessary work, providing various sorts of safety nets as the government finds it can’t even repair bridges.  So, I am often quite sorry to tell the phone crews “I am sorry, my charities are selected for the year, I cannot afford more.”

But when does it end?  Food banks need more money and food now, and more and more families end up on the streets and there are not enough shelters.  It is going to get worse.   I quit working my part time job out of injury, but then didn’t go back when I was better—because my ‘fill-in’ was a woman who cleans house for a living.  I am pretty sure she needs the money from MY former job, because with all the money crunch, fewer folks hire house-keepers.

To give more to the charities that solicit daily, I would have to find some horrible job at a fast food place, because my budget is stretched to it’s limit.  But other people need that job, don’t they?  My son is employed now, thank all the Gods, so we don’t have to support him completely and my step-mother no longer needs my financial aid since she has a financially secure boyfriend who insists on caring for her.  My pet population of rescued animals is down to a manageable number, so that money goes into the Environmental Defense fund now.

I know a lot of folks who don’t believe in giving to ANY charity.  Sure, sometimes big disasters like the tsunami shake the checkbook loose for the Red Cross, but there is no regular thought of it.  And many are quite resentful about churches that demand a tithe of 5 to 10%.  Is that really so bad, though?  Sure, perhaps you don’t care for how a church might allot your money, but is it so bad to think of a percentage of your income as giving to others in dire need.

You see, it isn’t just the big newsworthy tsunami out there…..there are big emergencies in smaller lives EVERY day.  I don’t fool myself that I can fix it all, and this isn’t a Lady Bountiful “because I can” will to power Neitzchean thing either.  It is, although I am not Christian, truly a “there but for the grace of others, go I” thing.  For all I know, the only reason my life is relatively secure (yes, yes, a mere three months from disaster and the streets), is so I CAN help someone else?

My husband accuses me of having “Franciscan moments” and maybe he is right to so tease me.  I don’t own a brown woolen robe…..I can’t afford one.  Consider just one charity, just one small check a month.  You see, charities don’t really get most of their money from the rich—it is the middle class and below that usually cares enough to give.  It is many small amounts that fill those coffers of hope!

So, on my “Franciscan” pagan knees again, I am asking you—-pick just one thing you care about, not even necessarily from my list, although I think all of my causes are excellent.  If the environment speaks to you, cries in pain—consider the Environmental Protection folks, or Sierra Club; if the suffering of your fellow man haunts you, Doctors Without Borders or Heifer International work tirelessly to succor that need.   If the plight of returning veterans makes you clench your jaw when you see them on street corners, consider Fisher House or IAVA, please.  Just think of writing ONE check a month for $15, please?  That is less than a family of four spends going to a fast food joint for lunch.  That is less than the price of two movie tickets.

Compassion is more than an emotion…..it is an action.