Once a year we all get a little bit of thankfulness and holiday cheer into our systems and find ourselves bustling across the street to help the old man who maybe shouldn’t even be walking anymore without a cane, climb a ladder to hang Christmas lights.  And then for the rest of the year we get disgruntled at poor customer service and tear up the junk mail from National Parks (carefully taking out the return address labels first).  But this year my new year’s resolution was to be nicer, and when I said nicer, what I really meant was to be a better person.  Several weeks later I began formulating a plan, and I have come up with several steps to becoming a better person, and hopefully doing some good.

First off, know thyself.  I say this in regards to the PTA-bless them.  They are wonderful people who do great things for schools.  I do believe that PTA members are made up of two kinds of people, former High School student council members and people who can’t say no.  I spent more than half of my son’s kindergarten year hiding from these well intended people.  When I was finally cornered I had to be truthful in saying that I would spend the entire year trying to figure out how to get out of going to meetings.  I am not a joiner, unless I get paid, and that defeats the purpose of volunteering.  Incidentally, I did paint a mural which suits me far better than say, collecting money for wrapping paper…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Second, believe in your cause.  This is based on a past experience regarding my charitable donations.  I tend to give stuff away.  For a while my favorite drop off point was a church thrift store.  I dropped it off there because it is in the neighborhood and easy to get too.  But then I had an epiphany-we are not church goers.  We have very valid reasons, my husband’s is based on a true philosophical belief, and mine is based on being raised by hippies and an inability to sit still without speaking.  Ask my husband, he takes car trips with me.  So anyway-why were we giving all our former goods to an organization that we didn’t necessarily know or support?   These days I still love giving stuff away, but it might be to kids in Guatemala, rather than a church we sometimes drive by…no offense to the church.

The third rule, give back.  This rule comes from my dad.  In the last five months of his life he underwent weekly and then daily blood transfusions.  This simple act of donating blood by someone who didn’t even know him helped him to live a few months longer and have the time to really say goodbye.  For reasons unknown, I feel that it is my duty to pay back all those blood transfusions.   Even though I have four other siblings, for one reason or another, mad cow, hepatitis, fear of needles, the blood donation has fallen to me.  By the time I am done paying it back it will probably be time for someone to donate some blood to me!   I do try to shame others around me into donating blood, including my husband who would run into a burning building, but if chased with a needle would most likely faint.  (Why is that?  The fear of needles seems completely irrational, but I will save that for another time).  I will say about donating blood, it doesn’t really hurt. It only takes about 45 minutes.  The worst part about donating blood is that sometimes you end up sitting across from the person who stares.  This is awkward because you don’t know what to do with yourself, and it’s not like you can leave.  Believe it or not, the person who stares is not always male either.  Either way, its best not to make eye contact, you wouldn’t want them to think you were forever linked because you donated blood together.  And for the record, some might refer to me as the person who sings and fidgets while donating blood.  Nobody’s perfect!   The five year old in me loves the enormous band aid they put over your teeny tiny puncture wound.  Donating blood is the poor and lazy man’s charitable cause.  “Oh, I don’t have any money to donate, so please take my blood!”  Trust me, after the first time-you get used to it.

These are just a few little things on my quest to be a better person in order to fulfill my New Year’s Resolution.  Am I changing the world?  Not really.  Do I still get all cranky and act like a jerk…probably way more often then I would ever want to admit.  But the lesson I have learned is, it’s actually easy and mostly a lot of fun to do good things, and if you find something that you either enjoy or feel a sense of obligation to do then it makes doing good and giving back all the better!