In this application I am filling out, the organization has the kind audacity to request from applicants what they would like in return for their help.
I very much appreciate this, as it connects me as a capable contributor toward my community. Today I may need help, but in the future, I may be able to help someone else by giving back or paying forward.
The organization is extending faith in me and expectation that someday I will be able to return to self-sufficiency status – which when you are down in the dirt, makes you look away from “down” into “up.”
I remember speaking with a wealthy acquaintance a while ago who had been irritated that people he helped did not seem to get independent.
I asked him if he ever asked them for anything in return – if he told them what he wanted to see from them, which was what he was not getting now on the tail end.
I got the sense he was flustered by the question, perhaps caught by the conundrum “how can you give with no strings attached if you need to see a result from having given to someone?”
Well, it is tricky, but a way has just been given here as a prospective example. People need to know what is expected in order to provide a comprable result.
They can always say “no” to the request, but at least the question was asked – out in the open – and there’s no more second guessing as to why the result did not naturally occur on its own.
Candid Corvid Productions 