The Life and Times of the Plume

I come home from the soaring
in which I lost myself.
I was song, and the refrain which is God
is still roaring in my ears.

[Rilke’s Book of Hours — 1,50]

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2020/12/27/15768/

I’ve wanted to talk to you about charity since June. Some of you might recall I took the entire month of June away from social media. The main reason for the break was I felt myself suffering a kind of fatigue that seemed to stem from watching humanity tear itself to pieces. I was also tired of people telling me what to do, what to say, and how to live my life. But there was something else going on, too, that was absolutely repulsive to me. In late May, I saw people criticizing each other for the way in which they practiced their charity. I saw people demanding that receipts for charitable donations be shown to the public. I saw people howling at each other, “SHOW ME THE RECEIPTS.” I saw people judging each other for how they chose to give and how much they chose to give. Everywhere I looked I saw charity being weaponized and I was repulsed by it.

So I stepped away.

It was then that I felt I needed to share my thoughts on charity but I haven’t been brave enough to do so until now. I have put much time and energy and thought into deciding how to go about practicing charity and I want to tell you that what I’m about to say does not come from a place of judgement or self-righteousness — all giving is good. It is good to give. I will never tell you or anyone else that they are not as good as me because of the way in which they practice their charity. I am simply going to tell you about what I have found is right for me when it comes to charity.

I see that it is in fashion to use charity to market small businesses. While this might feel right for a good many people, it has never felt right to me. Don’t act surprised by this, you see me living my life in a way that is usually counter culture. I am ruggedly individualistic in my approach to life, I’m not proud of this, it’s simply who I am. Nobody has told me to practice my charity this way — my ideas surrounding charity are dogma free. Believe me when I say I have received many messages and emails from people criticizing me for “not giving back” which is always hilarious to me. My reason for not publicly sharing the nature of my giving is how I protect my giving. I want to give with a pure heart, from a place of pure motivation. I do not give to impress my peers or win their favor, to signal my virtue, or to be in fashion. I give to simply give. I give to stay human. I give to connect with others. I give to serve my neighborhood, my community, my home state of Idaho.

There are two basic ways for me to practice charity:

a) I can make money, give some of it away, tell everyone about it, gain esteem in the eyes of the public and garner accolades.

b) I can make money, give some of it away, and not tell anyone about it.

I practice option b.

I feel that simply making the money and giving it away without telling anyone about my good deeds is a way to focus my heart on the action of giving instead of what I will receive by giving. Do you see what I mean? I feel the need to practice my charity as purely as I can, to remove my self from giving so that the gift can serve in completeness.

When I think of practicing charity, I imagine an invisible, indelible contract between hearts — I look at a fellow human and I see they have a need, I look at my own life and see I have enough. I feel the quiet, beautiful heart of God tap against my own heart, and I feel that powerful connection to the Holy manifest itself as inspiration to share, to give, to gift. I view charity as a contract of the heart between God, me, and the person I choose to give a gift to. The three of us know about it, it’s our sacred secret. I want to practice charity entirely for the benefit of others, not for any personal gain.

I have been inspired so often by stories of old wherein even the poorest households find a way to share the warmth of their hearth and their last morsels of food with a cold, hungry, wayward stranger. This work is beautiful, wholesome, human, and it doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t need to be swathed in a cocktail dress, it doesn’t require letterpressed invites, nothing needs to be bedazzled. We just have to show up for our fellow humans however we are able to. If there is only one slice of bread left, break it into two pieces.

The other idea I want to touch on is the idea of keeping your giving local. I see people rushing to show their receipts on Instagram when they send five bucks to a charity in Australia to help with brushfires but they turn a blind eye to the homeless woman in the grocery store parking lot in their own neighborhood. It has become increasingly important for me to practice my charity within my neighborhood, my community, my home state. I try to keep all of my hard earned money in Idaho where I can see it at work. I want to see the homeless people here with food in their bellies and shelter over their heads and warm clothes on their backs and some hope for tomorrow. I want my charity to work hard within my community and I want it to connect people, heart to heart, right here where I live. We talk about shopping local, eating local, buying food directly from local ranchers and farmers, but what about keeping our charity local as well?

We build connections and community by being here for each other in times of need. Giving locally within our neighborhoods builds our neighborhoods. Keep your chins up, keep your eyes open, know your neighbors, help your neighbors when you see they have a need. Donate your money, your time, your love. Look each other in the eyes, make contracts with other hearts, let the heart of God (from whom all good and perfect gifts rain down upon us) inspire you to uplift and treasure your fellow humans.

The final idea I want to share with you is the idea of receiving others with charity, with generosity. Instead of legalistically nit-picking others for their word choices, instead of being hung up on political correctness, instead of taking part in witch hunts, I work my tail off to see the intentions of others. I can take their words and actions as insults, or I can choose to interpret their words and actions with charity. I can expect the best of others instead of assuming the worst of them. This might be the most difficult form of charity to practice and it becomes increasingly difficult to navigate the intentions of others as we cover our faces, hide our smiles behind these masks, and cower behind our glowing screens every day of the week. I try my hardest to receive others with an open mind and open heart and this includes doing my best to see their good intentions when they express their ideas and choose their words.

That’s charity in a nutshell, though I’m sure I’ll think of other things I wanted to say. How ever you choose to practice your charity I hope you take time to think about how and why you give. I hope you take the time figure out what is right for you and/or your small business, and that you proceed with a sense of stalwart conviction. I do not judge anyone for how they go about this sacred task, I simply know what feels right and what feels wrong for me on a personal level and small business level. Thanks for hearing me out.

As always, I look forward to reading your thoughts on what I’ve shared here and more than anything, I hope you take the time to really look around you and see the needs of humanity where you live and make your home. Give to connect. Give to stay human. Give because you look at your life and have a sense of enoughness. Give to build and restore your community. Share what you can, when you can, with a full heart and receive only joy in return.

I love you all.