Entrepreneur offers a short article titled "The Secret To Saving: Think Before You Spend." While it does not address the important topic of giving money away, it focuses on being thoughtful and intentional about spending. It also reminds us, as Jesus did, that it's okay to splurge sometimes. "Being a conscious spender is about making your money match up with your values guilt-free. It's about spending extravagantly on the things you love while cutting costs mercilessly on the things you don't." -- Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich The Greater Good Science Center at U.C. Berkeley reports on the phenomenon of "compassion collapse" (why we feel more compassion for one suffering person than for many), and how we can increase our compassion: We find that when there are more suffering victims, people think they will feel more compassion. Given this expectation, people may become concerned about the financial and emotional costs of intense compassion. Compassion for many victims can be seen as an expensive proposition—one that will not make much of a difference. People may also become worried about being overwhelmed or burned out by compassion for many sufferers. In under five minutes, Hill Harper touches on what's wrong with our society's approach to money: the taboo about discussing income, fixation on projecting an image of wealth, and what true wealth values can be.
Karen Waters contributes an Op/Ed to the Minneapolis StarTribune, titled "Bullying goes against my Catholic faith": I am a practicing Catholic who is raising a family with my husband. We choose to send our four children to excellent public schools. A long time ago I had to choose how to live out my Catholic values when interacting with families deemed "not traditional" and certainly not "Roman Catholic," and I found the answer provided by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew (22: 36-40). It is called the Greatest Commandment, or the Summary of the Law, and to paraphrase it: Love God and your neighbor as yourself. |