"Tis the Season.."

I found a copy of this commentary by Jon Carroll, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle' Gate Page. It is my all time favorite holiday writing piece, and I read it often during the year as the concept applies universally. Given here in its entirety. Have a nice read and a great day!

"WE TAKE AS OUR text this year a quotation from Rabbi Schmelke as reprinted in the Street Spirit, an East Bay homeless newspaper sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee:

``When a poor man asks you for aid, do not use his faults as an excuse for not helping him. For then God will look for your offenses, and he is sure to find many of them. Keep in mind that a poor man's transgressions have been atoned for by his poverty while yours still remain with you.''

Whether you agree with the specific cosmology, the basic message is clear: Have a little humility in the face of want and need. There but for the grace of God go you.

In this joyous holiday season, there is want and need freely available in major shopping areas. There are human beings who are, quite frankly, seeking your money. Most of them are standing behind counters and offering you overpriced consumer goods, but some of them are squatting in doorways and offering you nothing at all.

Sometimes, even if you give them money, they don't say ``thank you.'' They don't make you feel good about yourself. They're too busy being cold.

Technically speaking, charity is not about feeling good. It's about need and want. The Untied Way is about need and want.

The Untied Way has no central office, no paid employees, no brochures or fund-raisers, no celebrity spokeshumans, no gala benefits. The Untied Way has only volunteers, has only one plan. It seeks to reach those people who require reaching.

When someone squats in a doorway and asks for money, it is a fair assumption that he or she requires reaching.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS: Go to your ATM and take out $100 in crisp $20 bills. The $100 figure is a suggestion only; $200 would be better and $40 would be splendid, too. What's one-five-hundredth of your annual gross income? Surely that's little enough to handle the need and want in your area.

Take these lovely bills and go to a busy area in your community. If your community does not have a busy area, downtown San Francisco is darned busy this time of year.

Walk along the street admiring whatever you choose to admire. When someone asks you for money, give that person a $20 bill. Repeat this process until all the 20s are gone. Voila and zip: the Untied Way.

NOW IT MAY BE that some of the people to whom you give money will spend it unwisely. They will not use it to update their resumes; they might not even put it toward the purchase of a better pair of shoes.

Some of the people experiencing need and want are also suffering from confusion. This confusion is often chemical. Sometimes the chemicals are ingested; sometimes they are produced naturally by the brain. Naturally, it would be better if they sought help. It would be better if you sought help sometimes, too, and you have not always done so.

Within the context of need and want, we owe people the dignity of their own confusion. We are not performing triage here, nor are we sitting on a golden throne. We are doing what we can. We are aware that it is not enough, and still we are doing it. That's the Untied Way.

Gratitude may not be apparent at all, or it may be embarrassing and overly effusive. It would be unwise to have an opinion about that. When a person is in a doorway, the concept of ``appropriate'' may be a little fuzzy.

You can be sure the money has gone to someone who needs it. You can be sure that your client will spend 100 percent of the donation on self-identified need areas. You can use the experience to meditate on the nature of charity, or the fragility of personal narrative, or anything else -- it's a little koan-in-a-box, just for this holiday season."