Giving Back
At the risk of seeming like a curmudgeon today, I am going to take issue with a common phrase, "giving back."
Giving back means something that was given is being returned. It is a common term for community service that is voluntary as opposed to court-mandated. People use it with good intention, but as with most cliches they aren't thinking about the actual meaning.
The people most likely to give back are people who haven't taken much in the first place, who have been giving all along, paying their taxes, making opportunities for others, teaching, working hard, building something. It seems to me that the people who should give back would be those people who have lived off the community (or state) largesse for years, not those who are making the state largesse possible.
Yes, we all benefit from the work of those before us. Nobody is stupid enough to argue that we don't stand on the shoulders of giants or, more likely, normal people who worked hard and did what they were supposed to and didn't even know they were doing anything special to raise their kids, go to work, pay taxes, serve in the military when called. I'm talking about our grandparents and great grandparents here.
I have no intention of giving back. That doesn't mean I don't have an intention of serving my community, just like I always have. But it's not under the guise of some obligation I have because my success, feeble as it is, is due to the federal government, the state of Georgia, or even Catoosa County, per se (even though, full disclosure, I work for the state of Georgia and work dang hard, too). I do it because I am a human being who values my community and because I am a Christian believer who strives to do all to the glory of God and the benefit of his creatures. Do I do enough? That's not the question. In human terms, we will never do enough. And that's the problem with giving back.
On an earlier blog I quoted Ann Voskamp, who quoted Dorothy Sayers and Mother Teresa in the thought that if we see our service as to people, we will get weary in well doing (I am paraphrasing) but if we see it as to God, our reaction to lack of gratitude from people will be different. I quote Mother Teresa below. Our north star must always be God; we must have a theocentric view of our lives, not some vague sense of "giving back."
Mother Teresa wrote: "People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives,; be kind anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight, build anyway. (skipping) The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway. You see in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them."
Giving back means something that was given is being returned. It is a common term for community service that is voluntary as opposed to court-mandated. People use it with good intention, but as with most cliches they aren't thinking about the actual meaning.
The people most likely to give back are people who haven't taken much in the first place, who have been giving all along, paying their taxes, making opportunities for others, teaching, working hard, building something. It seems to me that the people who should give back would be those people who have lived off the community (or state) largesse for years, not those who are making the state largesse possible.
Yes, we all benefit from the work of those before us. Nobody is stupid enough to argue that we don't stand on the shoulders of giants or, more likely, normal people who worked hard and did what they were supposed to and didn't even know they were doing anything special to raise their kids, go to work, pay taxes, serve in the military when called. I'm talking about our grandparents and great grandparents here.
I have no intention of giving back. That doesn't mean I don't have an intention of serving my community, just like I always have. But it's not under the guise of some obligation I have because my success, feeble as it is, is due to the federal government, the state of Georgia, or even Catoosa County, per se (even though, full disclosure, I work for the state of Georgia and work dang hard, too). I do it because I am a human being who values my community and because I am a Christian believer who strives to do all to the glory of God and the benefit of his creatures. Do I do enough? That's not the question. In human terms, we will never do enough. And that's the problem with giving back.
On an earlier blog I quoted Ann Voskamp, who quoted Dorothy Sayers and Mother Teresa in the thought that if we see our service as to people, we will get weary in well doing (I am paraphrasing) but if we see it as to God, our reaction to lack of gratitude from people will be different. I quote Mother Teresa below. Our north star must always be God; we must have a theocentric view of our lives, not some vague sense of "giving back."
Mother Teresa wrote: "People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives,; be kind anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight, build anyway. (skipping) The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway. You see in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them."
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