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Bouguereau - Charity, 1878.
I often struggle with finding something to do that feels good and worthwhile. I rarely find myself in the position to be able to do anything that improves or enriches the lives of those most in need. Like many things in my life, I suppose, much of this is down to having squandered too many chances and opportunities while I was young and not having forged enough drive in any particular direction since then. Sure, I give to charities and my church regularly, but, as our government should realise, you cannot solve everything that is wrong in the world by tossing money at it. Throwing money towards charities also feels like an easy option and you never really know exactly what good has been done with your cash, which, while not exactly the point, is always good to know.
For such reasons, I often patronise micro-finance site
Kiva, which lends money to rising entrepreneurs in poor countries via small loans of $25 and up from each of its members, which is then paid back to them by the entrepreneur, interest free, when they have made enough money to do so. Although you can easily claim the money back when it's repaid, the better thing to do, I think, is to keep on re-lending the money to different entrepreneurs, and perhaps make the occasional donation to Kiva themselves for their running costs.
Good as this is to do, as are most charitable donations, I still feel, however, that I need to do more. Occasionally, my frustration at my lack of action breaks forth and inspires me to try harder to do more worthwhile things for people. But trying to go out of my way to do good deeds or assist with certain types of charitable work always seems, for some reason, to end up with nothing lasting coming of it. It often feels to me that I am just not meant to do the things I am attempting to, and that I must keep searching until I find the correct areas to work within. I need, I think, to find a better career, that feels closer to a vocation, than the public sector job that I currently work in. Failing that, I need to use my spare time in better and more fulfilling ways.
If one is to use their talents correctly, one must first figure out exactly what those talents are and how they can be used to assist others. Things that I am quite good at include running, photography, writing and talking, so I should probably find ways to implement these things into my need to do good. Teaching, tutoring or mentoring in some form could be an option, while things like running can always be utilised to raise money in straightforward or creative ways. For me, photography is largely a way to express an aesthetic drive, but even that could be used beneficiently. Providing photographs to charitable trusts for free or even selling them to raise funds for some worthy cause are two ways of using that particular talent to do good.
Although these examples can be seen as just different ways of giving money to charity, which I have already stated does not feel like doing enough, they are not quite the same because the impetus is different. Fundrasing in such ways involve doing something that takes effort, talent and ability to raise money, while clicking a PayPal button does not. They are, therefore, far more worthwhile, as one invests a larger proportion of their passions, abilities and motivations into doing such things.
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