Why giving shouldn't be a solitary activity
By Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Editor's note: Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are the authors of A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity. This is the second in a series of three guest posts.
Secular people often make giving a solitary activity at the end of the year, one that feels like a sacrifice. That’s the wrong way to think about giving back. We learned a lot from churches and temples and the way they turn giving into an enjoyable, uplifting social activity. Our profile of a master pastor at a mega-church, Bill Hybels, reveals some of the magic he employs. We all are social animals and when we do things with a group of people we like, the activity becomes more fun.
So form a book club and engage in a few volunteer or giving activities together—or link your book club to Book Clubs for Change, bookclubs4change.org. Choose a need in your community or an area of the world that you all care about. Then choose a topic and an organization you might work with. Or maybe consider an on-location trip to the area and meet some of the people you want to help?
Or join a chapter of Dining for Women, which is one of the secular organizations that borrows from the religious notion of fellowship and joyous giving for a cause.  DFW has guests bring a pot luck dish to a host's home and then they all donate the money they would spend at a restaurant to a chosen cause empowering women worldwide.  Some groups have a subcommittee screen a list of finalists and the group votes on a final selection. In A Path Appears, we list some other great organizations—there’s even one called Beer for Books—that make giving a social and fun occasion.
@fareedzakaria on Twitter
Death. THE mystery. No..death is not final. We were born once, absolutely no reason we cannot be born perpetually or exist in a different dimension. Billions of earths in this galaxy alone. Many out there to continue after our solar system is dead.
Hyptosis will reveal your previous lives.
Most call it Resting in peace. Jesus called it Sleeping in death.
And i should NOW believe youre being sincere??? Youve done nothing but mean and spiteful to me for so long its kinda hard to believe that you are suddenly trying to be nice. Sorry, but i tried that route a month ago and you used it to be hateful so forgive me if i dont fall into THAT trap again. But hey have a happy new years anyway!
Most call it Resting in peace. Jesus called it "Sleeping in death."
I don't care if the priest or preacher man claims that when you die you either go to heaven or burn in hell. Jesus is The Way. Not them.
Ok you can stop preaching now philip! Because YOU dont practise what you preach therefore i am not listening to you! Good day!
Men are judged based on what they do, Chrissy. Not what they say. And you have never seen me do anything so Back Off with your harsh judgements of me. Thank you.
Um...if you think you get a pass at being as mean and hateful as you want to be because they're only words, you'd be mistaken.
Nice try at rationalizing your nastiness, though.
WWJD?
And no matter about me. The words of Jesus are TRUE concerning dead people resting in peace. Making liars of those claiming dead people either go to heaven or burn in hell.
Really? Prove it. Prove what someone believes is a lie, and that they are willfully telling that lie.
Everybody's interpretation of the Bible is different, Philip.
You read what you want to read to bolster your own biases.
Funny, that.
I have a black son living in Ferguson. He is 22 years old. He has ED problems and owns a gun. I am terrified.
I texted him to say that Jesus is the way.
Tap tap chrissy, class is in session. Listen and learn. Jesus loves all of us. You read the bible don't you.
Jesus loves all of us but he does not like what all of us do in our spare time, rather.
Tap tap. Let me in, I told Latisha, 22 years ago. Most beautiful black girl ever. Looked like Madana at age 20 dipped in chocolate. So I drilled her.
Today, she's just a fat cow like old banasy.
How nice, fake Philip.
However, you are incorrect about me.
The prayers of lawbreakers are detestable to God says The Word, for example.
The average American woman does resemble a cow made fat by steroids and hormones. Big deal.
"There WILL BE a resurrection." says The Word.
Tap this philip...youre just a mean, ugly, nasty hypocrit and i really dont give a damn WHAT your uneducated azz has to say! Talk about Jesus in one breath and fornication in the next! Youre the true spawn of satan!
"Prayers of lawbreakers are detestable to God," Philip? Really? So only the good can pray?
As usual, you're just babbling.
Sorry to hear about your daughter, chrissy. Truly sorrowful.
And i doubt you have enough money to buy one hour with ANY woman average or fat! So just stuff it!
So tell me Phillip, if one breaks the law, and prays to God and Jesus for forgiveness, he will be detested?
Why? Isn't that one purpose for praying as well as going to church?
Grow a brain @ Observer. The one practicing the breaking of law. Not the imperfect person born imperfect and so cannot possibly keep the law 100% of the time.
There is nothing wrong with the occasional drink of wine or need of pain killing meds. It is the practicing of such things that is outlawed in God's word.
Another rationalization to explain your drunkeness.
Thank you Observer!
You really don't have an answer for that one do you Phillip? I guess you just put your foot in your mouth again.
I suggest you listen to chrissy as well.
I replied to your stupid reasoning, Observer. You just couldn't shut-up long enough to read it.
You're welcome chrissy. As always, these forums are so much better with you here. Try not to let Phillip get to you. He is a strange man.
Losing a loved one is heart shattering. I can't imagine what the both of you are going through.
Good bye chrissy.
Odd, @Observer. Most people have experienced what it feels like to lose a child or other close family member or friend. You can only imagine? How old are you? 12?
*Cujo
*Banas
He he. You stepped right into that one, Donna. Lmao
Not really. You are still spelling Cujo wrong, PEDo.
@cujo. Nothing odd about it. I lost a loved one by heart attack, another beloved one died in an auto accident. Never have I lost anyone in a manner that they are terminal. This is such sorrow that it's something I can't imagine. I don't see where this could offend you, otherwise why would you diminish my respects to chrissy. By all means please do feel superior, although artificially.
Your priest says that when you due you either go straight to heaven or straight to burn in hell. Jesus says the dead are only sleeping. You decide who to believe. And live or due with that decision firmly in your mind.
*die, not due. Mkay?
I enjoy pepperoni priest pizza with all of my favorite priests
Do Americans give more or take more from small nations that have vast natural resources yet also have starving populations. Be honest now.
I have observed Americans taking more from small starving countries than giving to them. That's just what I have observed over the past few decades. So don't go getting your panties in a wad and harp on me for what I have seen.
No. You haven't seen horse dump, Philip. You are just a phoney and a liar.
Now I do know what I am talking about. For 30 years I weighed 600 pounds.
Lol cujo huh? What a most appropriate name for you philip. You really are that evil...even at 2 years old!! You hateful P O S!
@ Observer. Its a lost cause because philip/cujo has no concious nor any values! And absolutely no respect...particularly for women!
@ chrissy
I just got back from out of town. I am really sorry to hear about Melissa. I can't begin to imagine what you are feeling. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know.
Thank you @ bobcat. Your kind words are enough. I know she will be in a better place which is more important than my pain! So thank you again. Ok i have to get on the road soon but many thanks to all my friends!
@ chrissy,
I just read about Melissa. I am truly sorry for your loss. No words express that well.
Joey
I will not be home tonight to blog.
How come I'm the only one who can imagine what Chrissy is going through right now while the rest of you lay claim to not being able to imagine it? Why? Because it is a catch phrase used by pharmicated TV programmed automatons, is why. Like "Rest in Peace" while meaning Goto Heaven or Burrrrrn in "hell". Or, "God Bless America" for that matter.
Owe mye Gawd! I can't imagine what she is going through.
B-14. Omg! Bingo!
The above is a classic to be remembered always in the archives of The Cloud. Another generation of peoples might see it. 🙂
Philip can imagine anything. He is an ignorant azzz. He has absolutely no respect for chrissy nor for her dying daughter.
Yet he lectures the world about many things such as dangers of drugs, motorcycle gangs, and all sorts of Philip manure.
Philip manure. Really. How old are you, Skeptic. 12?
Philip will give his speeches to us all, then turn around and be more repulsive than anyone else on these blogs.
If he were to disappear tomorrow, nobody would care.
If I were not here, neither would your comments be. And so, by your own admission, your being here right now is for less than nothing. Making you worse than me who is nothing, even in your own stupid mind.
Ya'll come on down now and pig out in the name of women's breast research...errrr, Susan B. Kohmen breast cancer, rather. Huh huh.
After you stuff your pie holes, Dr's Nipcut and Kilroy will demonstrate preventative double mastectomy on a 13 teeted sow.
Odd. Jesus did not attend funerals. "Let the dead bury their own." he said.
Chrissy? Why are you airing this in public? For what reason do you share misery with us? Because it lives company? What?
I am not the man that coined the phrase Let the dead bury their own dead (while the rest of ya's back off). So take it up with Jesus. Not me.
I can't imagine what she is going through right now. Oh my God.
Market @ 18K "Omg!"