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jaeleslie at 12:30pm on 06/12/2003
jaeleslie at 12:30pm on 06/12/2003At the mall the Salvation Army red buckets are staffed by bell ringers, some of them making an interesting attempt at rhythm and tunefulness even in duo, and the teevee tells us the bellringers are in short supply this year. Maybe everybody has real jobs this year? (ha, that's like a joke, except it's not funny) Charity begins at home, the old saw goes, which must be often just a reply to those people begging some of one's scarce cash. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brisingamen writes about being mobbed by these charitable outfits while she attempts her supermarket shopping. How are these people to be distinguished from beggars, except that they dress better?
Singing in the carol "it's time to remember the poor" doesn't mean the thought of the poor just passes piously through one's mind. ("You'll like The Poor, when you meet them, haven't two pennies to rub together of course, but that's because they're Poor!") Remembering them surely means something more active. Gift for friend, check, pick up dry cleaning, check, haircut, check, Poor remembered, check. Nowadays that's writing a check! or maybe stuffing some folding cash through the slot in the Salvation Army bucket. If you're doing it so that other people will say, oh look how generous, that's not charity, I've been told. But money equalizes everything, the cash doesn't care, it's not clean or dirty, it's just flow. In a cash economy, I think we are getting off easy in some ways.
But we are also missing the other end of the mitzvah -- the act that blesses both giver and receiver -- because we don't see the good that we've done, if any. The exchange is so tenuous, we depend on financial examiners to assure us the money goes for a good cause. You can pay your tithe in groceries, but the good they do is still remote. I'm not sure anyone needs to see the good that results from doing what we can in the world (another matter best kept strictly between oneself and the Force) but we could all stand the blessing. Back atcha.
Hey, I pay my taxes in that hope that it goes for a good cause too. Is that charity? No, extortion!
brisingamen writes about being mobbed by these charitable outfits while she attempts her supermarket shopping. How are these people to be distinguished from beggars, except that they dress better? Singing in the carol "it's time to remember the poor" doesn't mean the thought of the poor just passes piously through one's mind. ("You'll like The Poor, when you meet them, haven't two pennies to rub together of course, but that's because they're Poor!") Remembering them surely means something more active. Gift for friend, check, pick up dry cleaning, check, haircut, check, Poor remembered, check. Nowadays that's writing a check! or maybe stuffing some folding cash through the slot in the Salvation Army bucket. If you're doing it so that other people will say, oh look how generous, that's not charity, I've been told. But money equalizes everything, the cash doesn't care, it's not clean or dirty, it's just flow. In a cash economy, I think we are getting off easy in some ways.
But we are also missing the other end of the mitzvah -- the act that blesses both giver and receiver -- because we don't see the good that we've done, if any. The exchange is so tenuous, we depend on financial examiners to assure us the money goes for a good cause. You can pay your tithe in groceries, but the good they do is still remote. I'm not sure anyone needs to see the good that results from doing what we can in the world (another matter best kept strictly between oneself and the Force) but we could all stand the blessing. Back atcha.
Hey, I pay my taxes in that hope that it goes for a good cause too. Is that charity? No, extortion!