PERSPECTIVE

perspective perspective Generosity learning, being and doing Extraordinarily ordinary Longer, brighter days ahead

Ayoung man approached me in a parking lot yesterday. “My family and I are staying over there and if we could get five dollars we could get a pizza. If we could get ten we could get two and that would cover us.” I had no idea whether his story was true. He looked as though he was living rough, though—gaunt, sunken cheeks, despairing eyes. Without hesitation, I pulled out my wallet and handed him ten bucks. I don’t know just why I did it. He wasn’t threatening. He wasn’t over imploring. He just seemed to really need a boost right then and interacting with him right there a couple of feet away, I just felt it was a moment. It’s not that I’m on a mission to give away all of our money. I walk and drive by plenty of people who are asking for a little push. And I’m not driven to help others by a sense of guilt or even a feeling of being lucky enough to have it and these others don’t and so therefore it’s my social obligation to do it. Nor do I get a big sense of satisfaction. I have a hard time pinpointing why I feel compelled to help out sometimes, whether scooping a sidewalk for a neighbor or stopping to push a car, and other times not so much. Every fall, a neighbor of ours comes by with his air compressor and blows out our sprinkler lines. He makes the rounds in our corner of the neighborhood and gets everyone ready for winter. He doesn’t ask for anything. He just does it because he can. It is not a transactional offer in any way. Theresa Baer writes this month in her Learn and Live column about teaching children to be generous and to volunteer. She also offers some ideas about where and how. The idea is to help children to be aware of others’ needs and to understand that they, themselves, have something to offer. The goal is for them, really all of us, to not just do generosity as an activity that we have come to understand as something that we should do because we’re lucky enough to have something and those other people are struggling. Where we’re really headed with this is for our children to see people who are just like they are, who just want to be happy just as they do and who don’t want to feel bad just as they don’t want to. We want to get beyond the them and us feelings. We don’t just drop money in a can and walk by. We stop. We talk and engage with people who are just like us. In the end, we want to be generosity, not just do generosity, though the path to being generosity, it seems, lies through the path of doing generosity. ‘Tis the season, Scott I did something last evening that would have seemed crazy a month ago. I stopped by my parents’ house and we sat down in their living room and chatted for an hour. We hugged and snacked and just enjoyed hanging out together. They left this morning to go visit family in Nebraska. The extraordinary ordinariness struck us all as we fell back into once familiar territory talking about the people and all the little things in our lives. I think about the line repeated in Joni Mitchell’s song (later covered by Counting Crows) Big Yellow Taxi. “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. They paved paradise and put a parking lot.” Our lives have been transformed in ways that we probably don’t understand yet. We’ve all missed out on a lot—visits to and from friends and family, a sense of ordinariness about once-routine activities, school and work schedules. I don’t mean to talk as though the pandemic is over and we can all just go back to our normal routines. There is no more normal, and we’re not sure what the new normal will look like. Will we avoid handshakes? Will we travel by air less? Will we keep Zooming with friends and family and for meetings? How long will we avoid large groups, indoor entertainment, eating in restaurants? I know that we’re not completely out of the woods and that many more will get sick, have long-term effects and any will die. And I don’t want to minimize that. It is nice, though, to be running stories like Lynn Nichols’ story “Easing into the new normal, 5 ways to regain a healthy family balance” instead of stories about how to survive the long, dark COVID-19 winter. And so to celebrate that thaw, we’re running stories to help us all get outside and appreciate this spring, this season of life emerging once again in the cycle, as it does. We have a couple of stories to get you out into your backyard to connect with the natural world. Lea Hanson has put together a story for first-time gardeners with the idea that it’s tough to dive into something new without a little guidance. And Theresa Baer shares some ideas to liven up your yard with some creative bird feeders from repurposed household items. If you’re feeling like a small road trip, check out Shelley Widhalm’s ideas for a nature day in Denver. Also, check out her story about Earth Day and all the virtual and in-person activities that support us as we learn about our green and blue planet. We need to keep our guard up and our masks on for a bit longer, but I, for one, definitely feel the days growing longer and brighter. Thanks for reading,

Scott

OCTOBER 2019 • Volume 24, Issue 6 APRIL 2021 • Volume 25, Issue 11 PUBLISHER Scott Titterington, (970)221-9210 scott.rmpublishing@gmail.com PUBLISHER Scott Titterington, (970)221-9210 EDITOR scott.rmpublishing@gmail.com Kristin Titterington, (970)221-9210 kristin.rmpublishing@gmail.com EDITOR Kristin Titterington, (970)221-9210 CREATIVE DIRECTOR kristin.rmpublishing@gmail.com Emily Zaynard emily.rmpublishing@gmail.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Emily Zaynard ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR emily.rmpublishing@gmail.com Greg Hoffman, (970)689-6832 greg.rmpublishing@gmail.com ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Greg Hoffman, (970)689-6832 DISTRIBUTION MANAGER greg.rmpublishing@gmail.com ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVE Susan Hartig susan.rmpublishing@gmail.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVE Susan Harting COVER PHOTO susan.rmpublishing@gmail.com Cheri Schonfeld, Courtesy of Sky’s Open Design - skysopendesign.com COVER PHOTO istock.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Theresa Baer, Lea Hanson, Katie Harris, Lynn U. Nichols CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Theresa Baer, Lea Hanson, Lynn U. Nichols, Scott Titterington Tim Van Schmidt, Shelley Widhalm

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