SO, YOU WANT TO GIVE?

REGARDING HENRY

By Henrylito D. Tacio



SO, YOU WANT TO GIVE?



RECENTLY, I got a copy of 'Heroes: People Who Made a Difference in Our World" by Dr. Harold J. Sala.



Though the book, I came to know Ann Scheiber, "a lonely little woman who pretty much stayed to herself." Dr. Sala further gave this information about her: "She lived in a tiny little apartment with paint peeling off the walls and badly in need of repairs. A product of the Depression, Ann was of the old school, who lived on a small pension and a government stipend. She never spent money on clothes. Without close friends, she seemed to be a real loner. In her years of government service, she was never promoted and in her lifetime received only a token pay increase."



Most of her neighbors knew that she visited the local library every day without fail. There, she read a financial daily, 'The Wall Street Journal,' from cover to cover. Only the librarian knew this. And there was only one person who knew that she was very rich – her stock broker who saw her nominal investment of US$5,000 grew into a fortune of over US$22 million.



"At her death, she left her entire estate to a local Jewish university she neither attended nor had ever visited," wrote Dr. Sala, the president and founder of Guidelines International. "She became her benefactor because she wanted others of the same ethnic background to be possibly spared the discrimination that she had felt in her lifetime."



After reading what Ann had done, people wondered how she managed to amass such fortune! The answer was that she invested in blue chip companies and major corporations, never living on her interest and profits. She plowed her dividend back into the purchase of more stock. "But those who ask only how she was so successful making money have missed the whole point of her sad life," Dr. Sala observed.



The stock broker explained: "She was obviously very intelligent and very unhappy. It would have been so much happier for her if she had done it (given the money while she was living) so she could see the benefits accrue to others."



This reminds me of the words of a sage, "Do your giving while you're living so you know where it's going." Not bad advice. Yes, not bad at all.



And that's what Chinese superstar Jackie Chan is doing. As a little boy growing up in poverty in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan lived in an orphanage. In one of his visits to the Philippines, he told the press: "We received help from the Red Cross every month. One day, I went up to the priest from Red Cross to say thank you. He said, 'I'm just the deliverer. When you grow up, show your appreciation by giving to others.'"



Those words stuck in his mind. So much so that after he became a bankable actor, he founded the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation in 1988. Among its objectives include helping the elderly and movie workers injured on the job, and giving scholarships to poor children who wish to pursue careers in the sciences or performing arts.



What Jackie Chan is doing reminds me of the words of Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes. He wrote: "The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application."



English politician and writer Joseph Addison states: "I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me."



Unknowingly, giving sometimes is a miracle healer. This was proven in a story which appeared in Frank Mihalic's 'The Next 500 Stories.' Read it and ponder:



The Rolls Royce drove into the cemetery. The driver told the man at the entrance house, "Would you come out to see the lady in the car? She is too till to walk."



Waiting in the car was a frail, elderly woman. She introduced herself and said, "Every week, for the last two years, I have been sending you five dollars to spend on flowers for my son's grave. But the doctors told me I don't have much longer to live, and I've come to thank you for taking care of the flowers."



The caretaker blinked at her and replied, "You know, ma'am, I'm sorry that you kept sending the money for the flowers." The lady wondered, "Sorry?"



"Yes," he explained, "because dead people never see them." The lady, very hurt by what she heard, answered back, "Do you know what you are saying?"



"Oh, indeed, I do. I belong to a visiting society: insane asylum, state hospitals, and the like. People in those places dearly love flowers. They can see them and smell them. Lady, there are living people in places like that."



The lady sat silent for a moment, and then signaled her driver to drive on.



Some months later, the same lady came back – but now completely different: she's sort of much younger and driving the car herself. "I take the flowers to the people myself," she explained with a friendly smile. "You were right: it does make them happy. And it makes me happy, too. The doctors don't know what is making me well. But I do: I have something to live for."



"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life," says Arthur Ashe, a prominent African American tennis player who is well remembered for his efforts to further social causes.



And remember, God has given us life through His Son. As a gift to mankind, he allowed his Son to be crucified. John 3:16 states: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."