Give because you can

As the week wound down, I remembered that I had signed up to work with Habitat for Humanity today. Coincidentally, the moment after I signed up to work (which required showing up at 7:30 to catch a ride with a neighbor to be there at 8) I was invited to a Christmas party for last Friday night. It slowly set in that I would be awake late and up early, which never works out well for me. The more I dreaded it though, the more I tried to really look at my difficulty in the light of what other problems people have. For example, some people will never get to a point where they can afford a home. Worse yet, these people will pay so much money in rent, that they are only breaking even or worse (as long as nothing unexpected happens and they don't plan to EVER retire). These are the people that Habitat FH helps. compared to my problem of not wanting to drink late with friends and then get out of bed early, there was no question that I couldn't back out.

If you have the resources to give, then you need to give. A lot of what we have in the U.S. is not a direct result of our own hard work. It is an extreme rarity for someone to actually be able to legitimately claim they did it on their own, rags to riches, just hard work and perseverance. For the most part, we are all standing on the shoulders of giants.

This entry doesn't have some feel good ending where I realized my true calling was to help build houses or everyone there was excessively grateful for my drywall abilities. No, this entry has a real ending. I worked all day with Habitat. I got Sheetrock dust in my eyes and nose. I got very dirty. I was exhausted when I was done, and nobody personally thanked me.

The reward has been paid to me long ago, and I have already spent it. Now, I am just giving some of it back. You should do the same.