“Today you. Tomorrow me.” I wrote this quote down during a recent keynote address that reminded me of the power of being a do-gooder.
Welcome to the 184th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a quote of the week. Along with the importance of being a do-gooder, this week’s edition looks at the difference between possums and opossums, a word of the week, and repairing potholes with recycled clothing.
On my mind this week: Be a do-gooder
Shankar Vedantam delivered the opening keynote at the Employee Benefits Conference I attended a couple of weeks ago. Vedantam is the host of the Hidden Brain podcast and author of Useful Delusions.
Vedantam closed his keynote with an inspiring story of a motorist stuck on the side of the highway with a flat tire. He went into a lot more detail but here’s a synopsis of the story:
After many many cars whizzed by, a van carrying a Latino family stopped to help. The parents spoke only Spanish, so they communicated with the motorist through their daughter who spoke a little English. The family went out of their way to help and get the motorist back on the road again. The motorist tried to compensate them for their time and trouble, but they refused to accept his money. When the motorist insisted, the father responded in broken English, “Today you. Tomorrow me”.
“Today you. Tomorrow me.” Four simple words spoken in broken English. But what a powerful message!
After hearing Vedantam’s keynote, I reflected that one of the saddest aspects of our modern world is our tendency to be too busy to take the time to do good. Like the hundreds of cars that whizzed by the stranded motorist, we often go about our daily lives focused only on our own needs and our destination. Charitable giving and volunteerism have steadily declined in Canada over the years, yet so many people need help.
When did doing good become bad?
A couple of days after hearing Vedantam speak, my daily reading and reflection in The Bible With Nicky and Pippa Gumbel drove Vedantam’s message home with a discussion of how our society often uses the term do-gooder as an insult.
I had never thought of a do-gooder in a negative sense, so I looked up the meaning of the word. Sure enough, Dictionary.com defines a “do-gooder” as “a well-intentioned but naive and often ineffectual social or political reformer.”
Nicky Gumbel’s commentary on the daily readings reminded us of how Jesus went around doing good and that it’s our responsibility as Christians to do the same. I’d take it one step further and say that it’s our responsibility as human beings to be do-gooders.
Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all challenged ourselves to do something good for someone, no matter how small, every single day?
Helping is not just good for the recipient. It’s good for the doer as well. As I shared in an earlier post about the helper’s high and the power of serving others, I’ve seen the benefits of being a do-gooder in my 93-year-old mother. I think it has been one of her keys to aging well.
Who will you help?
A few weeks ago, in an episode of The Life of Try podcast, Wynne Leon quoted our dear friend Dr. Vicki Atkinson who recommends closing each day by asking two questions: “Who did you help?” and “What are you grateful for?” Vicki’s wise words are an important reminder of the interconnectedness between helping and gratitude.
As we head into the holiday season and after that a fresh new year, let’s all resolve to be do-gooders and make a positive difference in someone’s life at every opportunity. Because we never know when we will be the one needing help.
“Today you. Tomorrow me.”
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Quote of the week
Wherever you are in life and whatever your job or ministry, it is possible to go around doing good.
Nicky Gumbel
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
John Wesley
Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights of the week gone by:
- We had about 50 trick-or-treaters on Halloween, down from around 75 last year. I thought we’d have more considering it was Saturday and the weather was mild and dry.
- On Tuesday, we took advantage of the beautiful sunny and summer-like weather to get out for a hike at the Huron Natural area.
- Thursday was the latest instalment in the ABC lunch series with my high school girlfriends. M is for Pizza Motolo in Cambridge. It was awesome.
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:
Possum? Opossum!
We have a possum living in our garden. Or we thought we did. It turns out what we call possums in North America are actually opossums—a completely different animal.
Possums are a varied group of about 67 species of marsupials found in Australia and nearby islands. Opossums, on the other hand, comprise 100 different species of marsupials across North, Central and South America including the Virginia Opossum which is only found in North America.
(Source: Travel 4 Wildlife)
If you have an opossum in your garden, count yourself lucky. The Opossum Society of the United States reports these scavengers will eat unwanted pests like snails, slugs, spiders, cockroaches, rats, mice and snakes.
Word of the week: dreck
Wordle did it again. Friday’s word was dreck, defined by Dictionary.com as a slang term meaning “anything regarded as worthless or of low quality; junk.”
I kind of like this word. It describes a lot of things in our world. And despite it being a new word to me, I got it in 4 guesses.
Repairing potholes with recycled clothing
Clothing waste, is a big problem and a community in Kent, England has an innovative idea that might do something about it.
Maidstone Borough Council has partnered with sustainable materials company RECOOL and contractor Loughman to repair five potholes using an experimental material incorporating recycled textiles.
The council will monitor the repairs in the coming months to see how they perform.
(Source: Waste Culture)
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
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