How you can make yourself safe

"Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without."
- Joseph Wood Krutch

To people in the western world who are used to having whatever they want, this quote sounds very unpleasant.

Doing without doesn't necessarily mean having money but no way to spend it or not being able to obtain the comforts of life. It can also mean what you give because someone else needs what you have much more than you do.

Should you care about the illiterate, the crippled, the chronically ill, the desperately poor, those who live in regions where genocide is taking place or those who are starving? If you don't fit into one of these categories and no one you love does, there is a great temptation to avoid caring.

The good citizens of Germany in the 1930s didn't care, so along came Hitler to exterminate as many of these "misfits" as he could. Along with them, he cleared out those who disagreed with his political philosophies or his manner of governing. He assumed that his people, those who voted for him, didn't care if these "genetically weak" people simply disappeared because they said nothing and they did nothing to help them.

Giving is not just a way to help those who are less fortunate or a way to make yourself feel better about doing good. It's also a way of ensuring your own safety.

Tomorrow you could be one of these unfortunates. Very few of them expected to ever find themselves in such a situation, so don't think it couldn't happen to you.

By your actions, you set the standard for others. If and when you need help from others, it will be available to you if you have done your small but meaningful part in the past.

Do it now. Others will follow.

Doing nothing is safe, for now. Dangerous over the long term.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to put your future in perspective today.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl