The Epicenter of Generosity

If it is more blessed to give than to receive, then the South Side is the most blessed neighborhood in the whole Syracuse metro area. Hey: how can we get some of those blessings?

Did you read the article about charitable giving in Wednesday’s Post-Standard?

Since I have spent my entire career in the non-profit sector, anything that mentions patterns in charitable giving catches my eye. What motivates people to give -- of themselves, and from their pocketbooks?

Religious participation, for one thing, as SU professor Carol Dwyer noted. The highest percentage of charitable giving in the US goes to faith-based causes.

“That surprises some people because there’s a lack of understanding of the power of religion in some people’s lives,” the article quoted Dwyer as saying.

One other strong motivator for giving is knowing people in need -- knowing them not just as recipients of charity but as human beings, friends, neighbors. When we connect, we give -- we give our hearts, our selves, our souls and bodies. That’s one reason why people go back over and over again to places like the Samaritan Center. If you are hungry, it’s a great place to eat. If you are hungry for something more in your life, it’s a place where you can get that, too.

Giving and receiving go hand in hand. David Tanyhill, pastor of a church on West Castle Street, put it this way:  “We are people who understand mercy because of the fact we have needed so much of it in our lives. It’s because of our giving that we are able to receive.”

Read the full report on How America Gives

We can learn a lot from a walk down to Syracuse’s “epicenter of generosity.” All kinds of data show that church-going and giving rise and fall together. New England, for example, has the lowest rates of both in the country, and curiously, both the affluent and the rural parts of New York State are not far behind.

I have a feeling, though, that there are pockets in our neighborhoods that connect very strongly with the South Side. I have seen extraordinary generosity from people in this congregation -- real engagement, and real feeling, and real connection with people in need. I have a feeling we know that that South Side community is part of our community, that our solidarity, and our giving, outpace the average in these “affluent eastern suburbs.”

Last year we spent a lot of time identifying our assets -- what God has given us -- and now we can imagine what blessings we will reap from those assets: what now are we going to give away?

-- Jacqueline Schmitt

Gospel of the Dog Days

 

Hail Sirius!

        When I was a child  during the dog days of summer, we were outside, swimming, riding bikes,  playing games, and getting in the most we could before school started. My children were of a generation that they had much less freedom, even in our neighborhood, to do the simple things of summer. For many children to have those lazy unplanned unscheduled days, often a parent has to schedule vacation time.

           As I think about our children, my mind turns to text, tweet, constant

communication, and an ever enlarging world of information and stimuli. Simultaneously, I both love and worry about Social Media. Our children are inside sitting and doing whatever social media they have-at least-some children are doing this. The connection is such a different one. In my family, my mother now has an iPad so she can see pictures of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Face Time is cool too for families that live farther apart and for folks who can't get out. Still, social media is complicated and seems to complicate our personal relationships and our ability to connect. Our likes and dislikes are public and our ability to hurt is magnified

           It may be that each new generation of parents has their own challenge to meet with their children but it does seem that Social Media creates another parenting job that seems easy until you see the truly complicated and often disturbing choices presented to our children, including to our grown children. Loving our children is not enough; we have to  be the first filter and hope we can handle an area our kids know more about than we do.

         In early summer, I was in Arkansas where my father was grew up. My sisters and I took Dad's ashes to the White River where he spent so much of his youth. His friend and our dear friend was there to tell us about a different time to be young. He said that it was "the best time to be young". It was a safe time. 'We were never bored; we were never tired; we always had something to do'. Dad and his friend spent summers working on 'the farm', cleaning out slues, fishing, and swimming in cool, smooth bottomed swimming holes. They were small town boys with more to do than time allowed.

          As families grow, the big steps we take with our children are not anything we are necessarily prepared for and I suppose if we weren't challenged, it wouldn't really be parenting.  So many times I had hoped to have a lesser challenge and an easier time for a child.  Still, this time of year and the glorious Upstate  summers seem to turn a switch that leads me by the upturned face outside even on our warmest days to recall the summers of the Dog Days and look forward to the future.                                                                                                         mba

  

For more interesting facts about Sirius, the dog star, see the these links:

• http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=178

•    According to the 1552 edition of the The Book of Common Prayer, the "Dog Daies" begin J

uly 6th and end August 17th. But this edition, the 2nd book of Edward VI, was never used

extensively nor adopted by the Convocation of the Church of England. The lectionary of

1559 edition of the Book of Common Prayer indicates: "Naonae. Dog days begin"

with the readings for July 7th and end August 18th. But this is noted as a misprint[2] and

the readings for September 5th indicate: "Naonae. Dog days end". This corresponds very

closely to the lectionary of the 1611 edition of the King James Bible (also called the Authorized

version of the Bible) which indicates the Dog Days beginning on July 6th and endin
on September 5th. A recent reprint of the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer

contains no reference to the Dog Days."

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Days>

•   Reviews of media for kids:

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/