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Kindness And Empathy And Awesomeness (1 Viewer)

Mr. Ham said:
Love this is here. As a daily Twitter user, this is my favorite genre by far.

Within that genre, I’d pay for a streaming service that was nothing but soldiers coming home to their kids and this genre, deaf people hearing for the first time. I chalk these up to empathy, because it’s why these resonate.

https://youtu.be/arUA1unrAiw
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What are some twitter accounts you follow for good things in addition to those? Rex Chapman does quite a bit. Others you like?

 
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Joe Bryant said:
What are some twitter accounts you follow for good things in addition to those? Rex Chapman does quite a bit. Others you like?
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He does not exactly fill it up on twitter, but Alan Alda puts out content on his podcast that I think would be right up your alley.  

 
i wish so hard sometimes that i had a scrooge mcduck pile of money so that i could go around do stuff like that but hey that isnt what the big kahuna had in store for me so anyhow i try to do my bit to help out where i can i might not have money but i have a strong back and i will pich in where i can and i guess i encourage everyone who has plenty to give to those without any this year because as bad as 2020 has been so far christmas is going to be so awful for so many its a tragedy so do what you can soapbox swc over and out take that to the bank bromigos 

 
Yesterday my wife and daughter took an hour to meet virtually with the President of LSAC while he called the top ten donors to St Jude's in 2020. A few of these people have donated 8 figures (they didn't say it, but the president talked with my wife for a while before the calls). To hear how they seemed genuinely appreciative to hear her story (adopted, diagnosed while checking for something else, finding a donor, being the first with her condition treated at St Jude's, the process, etc), and the happiness she brought to the calls, was simply awesome. These people aren't in the news, aren't trying to make a name for themselves, they just find this their way to give back. There are some inspiring people out there.

 
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ChiefD said:
That was a good way to start the day.  Thanks for that.  :thumbup:
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Thank you, I thought the same.

I love all kinds of things about this.

One - it's a sweet reminder of what we have to look forward to in getting back together in the future.

Two - I'm often reminded on things like this of the power of music. I know very little about classical music. I can't say I listen to it much just for fun. But there's something to me undeniable about majestic music like this. It's like it unlocks some primal key or sequence that is universal. So good. 

And three - this gets maybe too sappy but it reminds me of the beauty and power of a "group" or "team". Solos are cool. But the way they add musicians here and the sound gets better with new additions to me illustrates the power of a "body". The Bible talks of this. I'm sure other ancient books do as well. We know intuitively it make sense. 

Merry Christmas Eve. 

 
Watch to the end and good luck not shedding any tears.

So you know why she's so emotional, from the description, Davida Scheffers has lived her dream in winning a contest and the opportunity to play with the dutch Orchestra. Davida suffers from an extremely painful neuromuscular condition that derailed her career, and she thought she would never get to play in a professional orchestra again... The young blond lady is her daughter and was 18 years old that day.

 
ChiefD said:
This one is one of my all time favorites.
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many many years ago my lady and i had a chance to travel over christmas and my kids were really little at the time and we had to drive a really long way and it was hell they barfed in the car were fussy and so on anyhow when we finally got to our destination we were on a walk near a college and they have all of these actors and actresses dressed up in time period costumes and basically the ride had been hell and we were broke like always and it was christmas and we were tight so hopefully you get the scene its tense we are broke we are young ourselfs and we got two little ones and we are trying to figure out how we are going to pay for everything and asking ourselves why are we on vacation anyhow given all of that and its christmas which can be stressful enough and so there we are walking down this big pedestrian zone street that is closed off to cars and my oldest daughter in a stroller only knows the first couple of lines to santa clause is coming to town so she starts singing you better not shout you better not cry you better not pout im telling you why santa claus is coming to town over and over because that is all she knows and brohans the college kids were on break and a group of four or five college girls hears it and they start walking behind us and singing along with my daughter and they stayed behind us walking and singing and pretty soon some of the costume people hear it and joined along and started walking with us all of them just singing the first lines over and over and my daughter thought it was great and i was having a hell of a hard time keeping it together i  mean it just hit the hell of out me and think we walked about a half a mile and by the end of it i bet there were probably 20 people with us singing that same line over and over and people looking at us and just smiling and joining in singing when we passed them and saying how cute and whatnot and brohans i didnt get any presents that year because hell if we could afford them but that was the best present i think i ever got take that to the bank brochachos 

 
@Joe Bryant

The search function did not turn up a hit, but I could swear Will MacAskill's name has been dropped in this forum in the past.  Anyway, check him out on Sam Harris' latest podcast, #228 - Doing Good.  I boldly predict you'll like it.

 
Mister CIA said:
@Joe Bryant

The search function did not turn up a hit, but I could swear Will MacAskill's name has been dropped in this forum in the past.  Anyway, check him out on Sam Harris' latest podcast, #228 - Doing Good.  I boldly predict you'll like it.
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Thanks GB. I subscribe to Harris' podcast but honestly it gets buried under the 125 other podcasts I subscribe and never find time for. Looks like this one is 2 hours plus. Can you give a cliff notes?

 
Joe Bryant said:
Thanks GB. I subscribe to Harris' podcast but honestly it gets buried under the 125 other podcasts I subscribe and never find time for. Looks like this one is 2 hours plus. Can you give a cliff notes?
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My book report skills are atrocious, but Will McCaskill is a co-founder of The Centre for Effective Altruism, which includes asking people to donate 10٪ of their income towards improving the lives of those in need.

One of the interesting insights Harris brought to the topic is that we should be encouraging (young) people to choose to pursue careers where they can maximize their income, asserting that contributing cash will ultimately yield better results that volunteering.  I'm paraphrasing badly; it's not like he was dunking on people who volunteer.

Full disclosure, I snoozed off halfway through the podcast.  I've added it back to the queue.

ETA: Sam's seven minute intro will give you an excellent idea of what is to come for the next two hours.

 
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Mister CIA said:
My book report skills are atrocious, but Will McCaskill is a co-founder of The Centre for Effective Altruism, which includes asking people to donate 10٪ of their income towards improving the lives of those in need.

One of the interesting insights Harris brought to the topic is that we should be encouraging (young) people to choose to pursue careers where they can maximize their income, asserting that contributing cash will ultimately yield better results that volunteering.  I'm paraphrasing badly; it's not like he was dunking on people who volunteer.

Full disclosure, I snoozed off halfway through the podcast.  I've added it back to the queue.

ETA: Sam's seven minute intro will give you an excellent idea of what is to come for the next two hours.
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Thanks GB.

That is an interesting angle for sure. I was listening to the How I Built This Podcast yesterday talking to Cotopaxi founder and he said something similar. They are B Corp and he talked about focusing on making more money so they could give away more. Vs the short term volunteering. That can be a pretty nuanced discussion and I'm not certain where I fall on it. But it's worth wrestling about. I'll give Harris' podcast a listen - I have it starred in the que. Thanks. 

 
Hopefully this fits in here as I think it’s a pretty cool thing my church did this year.
 

Typically we have a Christmas offering during December where people give above and beyond their typical giving towards specific ministries or towards a building fund (we currently (well, until Covid) meet in a high school cafeteria).

We decided this year, that instead of keeping the money in house for use by us, we would give it all away. So we picked 4 charitable groups to split it between: 

-A men’s homeless shelter in nearby Philadelphia

-A small church plant that is attempting to bridge cultural gaps in the same area in Philadelphia

-International Justice Mission, an organization that fights slavery around the world (like helps provide local officials resources and then goes with them to raid places and rescue young girls kidnapped into sexual slavery type “fights”)

-a group in the Middle East that trains and provides jobs to marginalized women who have been cast aside by their culture

This year, somehow we ended up not only way below our expected expenses, but way above in projected giving, enough that we easily met out budget needs by the end of November. So as a Board, we decided that not only were we going to give our Christmas offering to these groups, we are also giving the vast majority of our normal December giving as well.

I’ve been reading about other churches who have done something similar who have purchased tons of medical debt and freed people from crushing medical bills (it’s crazy as they are able to buy this debt for pennies on the dollar).

For me personally, our company gave everyone a surprise bonus at the end of the year. Personally we had a rough year with lots of medical issues for my wife and losing two close family members. But through it all we managed to be just fine financially this year. We don’t make FBG type money, but we survive and are content with what we have. So we decided to take that entire bonus and give it to the Christmas offering because the idea of using it on a new tv or other stuff we didn’t need when we knew it could go towards: freeing young girls in sexual slavery, providing shelter for desperate men in Philly, trying to provide hope and rebuild community in South Philly, or providing a living and self respect to women cast aside in a middle eastern country, it just felt so much better to give it away than to keep it.

My hope and prayer for all in 2021 is that as we begin to come out of the other side of this pandemic, we have a new found appreciation for what we DO have and a compassion and heart to help those who don’t have. In the end, I think giving away what we don’t need to those who do need does at least as much for ourselves as it does for those we give it to.

 
Mister CIA said:
My book report skills are atrocious, but Will McCaskill is a co-founder of The Centre for Effective Altruism, which includes asking people to donate 10٪ of their income towards improving the lives of those in need.

One of the interesting insights Harris brought to the topic is that we should be encouraging (young) people to choose to pursue careers where they can maximize their income, asserting that contributing cash will ultimately yield better results that volunteering.  I'm paraphrasing badly; it's not like he was dunking on people who volunteer.

Full disclosure, I snoozed off halfway through the podcast.  I've added it back to the queue.

ETA: Sam's seven minute intro will give you an excellent idea of what is to come for the next two hours.
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That’s an interesting theory. I’ve actually heard somewhat of the opposite though too, that volunteering time and creating personal connections for those in need is ultimately more meaningful than giving money. I think the idea being that building relationships and community allows society to ultimately meet needs more efficiently. If more people know those who may need help, they’re more likely to get help sooner and have their needs met more specifically.

Of course, that was more with an eye towards having the government do things versus volunteering. Perhaps smaller local charitable giving would be somewhat of a different story and able to adequately meet needs versus the bureaucracy and impersonal nature of large government programs.

 
Last Saturday I attended (virtually) Come Together 2021: Current State of Homelessness in NYC. This was originally intended for a year ago but hey, pandemic. There were about 450 attendees (social workers, pastors, volunteers, and others involved in trying to ameliorate conditions for our friends on the street.)

Anyway, this interview was a huge highlight, thought y’all might enjoy it.

Main Speaker Panel - starts around 7:45

Josiah Haken, Chief Program Officer of New York City Relief, interviews his two friends, Detra Thomas and Wayne Batchelor, about their personal experiences with homelessness. 

Detra was a pastors wife - mom of 7 - for 34 years in Arkansas. She left an abusive relationship; domestic violence is a leading cause of homeless.

Wayne is a jazz musician from London who came to NYC 20 years ago to obtain a music degree from the New School. He has traveled the world as a working musician.

They speak about their experiences. It’s an amazing conversation, enjoy.

 
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@chefsymon is a fun follow for foodies. He’s pretty interactive with his followers, and answers a lot of questions. 

 
***Girl Scout Cookies***

Hey, if you want to support your local troop and order GS cookies from there, by all means. But just wanted to let folks know there is a troop in NYC which is comprised of 291 girls who live in one of the 450 shelters in our city.

Support Troop 6000 - buy your GS cookies from them

TIA
 

(As of January, 20/1, there are 55,915 homeless people sheltered, including 17,645 homeless children. Nightly average. Does not account for the 4K+ who chose to live on the streets bc shelters are dangerous places to be.)

 
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