Have You Given Yet? | Flash Post 312

Button, I thanked God today for giving me the means to share my lunch with some workers in the house. I also feel indebted to my parents for ingraining in me and my younger sibling the absolute joy in the act of giving.

Didn’t Mother Teresa say–Give till it hurts?

Wah, Button, I’m impressed. I remember my mother never turning away a guest without serving him food and drink or whatever was available at home. But my father was something else. I was witness to times when he’d return home from work minus his pullover in winter or an umbrella he’d carried with him to work on a rainy day! On being asked about the missing objects by my mother, he’d simply say that he’d donated the clothing  to an older man who needed it more than him. Ditto the umbrella.

That’s so wonderful.

Looking back, I realise that if he could be so generous and observant without having the means, why can’t I emulate some of his good qualities when I have the means? And, like Mother Teresa said, give till it hurts, how else can we live to be good human beings if we can’t carry forward some of the good traits our parents embedded in us?
That feeling of overwhelmingness when you give and give is an emotion that just can’t be explained in words. The overwhelmingness boils over when you don’t have the means and, yet, give. Ditto for my in-laws. I remember my father-in-law rushing to meet up even with strangers if he got the news that the person was unwell and do everything to make himself useful.

Those times were different, I feel.

Without the onset of high-rise buildings, people knew—actually cared enough to find out who their neighbours were, interacted with each other and helped each other in tough times. But those days have long gone. With the invasion of skyscrapers, flat occupants don’t even care to find out who their neighbours are, leave along helping each other in times of need! We have, over the years grown into an uncaring, selfish and intolerant society.

And that’s not nice.