one of us

Well, I finally did it. Got sucked back into the social networking vortex via Twitter. What can I say? I like the name. And the fact that it forces me to be succinct. A lost art, brevity …

Anyway, today, there was a tweet from fearless fashion freak, Bryan Boy, pointing to his recent blog post about charity and a way to give that keeps on giving. (Hint: it’s not herpes.) Donations to organizations like Trickle Up, give people living on less than $1.25 a day the seed money to start small businesses. His point was that the standard hand-out form of charitable giving is not sustainable. Or sustaining. I agree 100% on the latter. We all need the sense of confidence and security that comes from knowing we can take care of ourselves.

As for sustainability, though, I bet we in the U.S. could support several third world countries with what we spend on lattes alone. I’ve long felt that those of us who are the “haves” (and by that I mean we who have everything we need plus enough left over for things like $5-a-day latte habits and $100-a-month iPhones) could stand to have a little less. You know, share. It’d be good for us. Might even make us face our fears and insecurities instead of suppressing them with over-consumption. Not to mention, I actually worry more about money when I’m flush with it than when things are tight. I hang onto that shit like Tom Cruise holds onto crazy. And it is crazy. Because I’ve supported myself for the last 25 years and I’ve always had more than I need. But somehow, I’ve convinced myself that I need everything I have. Living in a culture of fear will do that to you.

So I’m going to loosen my grip a little, and as my bf—who routinely gives handouts to pretty much anyone who asks (and some who don’t), though his income is even less predictable than mine—says, “Fuck fear.” Or as Neale Donald Walsh says:

“When you know that there is enough, you stop competing with others. You stop competing for love, or money, or sex, or power, or whatever it is you felt there was not enough of. The competition is over.

This alters everything. Now, instead of competing with others to get what you want, you begin to give what you want away. Instead of fighting for more love, you begin giving more love away. Instead of struggling for success, you begin making sure that everyone else is successful. Instead of grasping for power, you begin empowering others.

Instead of seeking affection, attention, sexual satisfaction, and emotional security, you find yourself being the source of it. Indeed, everything that you have ever wanted, you are now supplying to others. And the wonder of it all is that, as you give, so do you receive. You suddenly have more of whatever you are giving away.

The reason for this is clear. It has nothing to do with the fact that what you have done is ‘morally right,’ or ‘spiritually enlightened,’ or the ‘Will of God.’ It has to do with a simple truth: There is no one else in the room.

There is only one of us.”