While I worked in Toronto, a group from our office made regular trips downtown to give blood.
On one of those trips, I saw a man I knew walking aimlessly along the street. “Don!” I called. “Come and join us. We’re going to give blood.”
I knew Don McCallum from his time as a minister in Newfoundland. I had visited him twice in Baie Verte; he had written articles for the magazine I edited, the United Church Observer. As we lay in adjoining tiltback chairs, filling our bags of blood, he told me that he had felt that he was in Toronto because he felt that God was calling him to move on.
He didn’t mention that he had been in Toronto for several weeks already. He hadn’t found a church that needed him. He was broke, despondent, and homeless. He had just 23 cents left in his pocket.
“I was about to give up,” he told me years later. “I thought I had nothing left to give. And then you showed me that I did still have something. I could give some of my blood to someone who needed it.”
Maybe it was coincidence. Don would probably say it was God at work. Whatever the reason, a short while later, he was invited to start working at a well-known United Church in suburban Scarborough.
Don McCallum helped me see giving blood as a truly altruistic act.
Altruism in action
When you give blood, you don’t expect anything back -- except, perhaps, feeling good about helping someone. There’s no other benefit to you. No tax receipts. No payments. No free meal, no shaking hands with a celebrity, no plaque acknowledging your philanthropy.
It doesn’t matter if you can afford to be generous, or if you have just 23 cents in your pocket. It doesn’t matter if you arrive in a chauffeured limousine, or walk up in tattered sandals. Giving blood is an utterly level playing field.
You can’t even bask in eternal gratitude from the person whose life you saved, because it’s all anonymous.
Everyone has pretty much the same amount of blood. And the “unit” of blood you give comes close to the biblical “tithe”, roughly one-tenth of your blood supply.
I write all this because next Wednesday, Canadian Blood Services will hold a mobile blood donor clinic in this community, the first since Lake Country was incorporated.
Personally, I can’t give blood anymore. There are no age limits now, but Canadian Blood Services discovered I once had malaria, long ago. But I will be there as a Rotary Club volunteer.
Unless you live in Lake Country, I won’t see you there. But may I ask that you consider giving blood? Soon?
The summer months see a lot of road accidents, and many regular donors go away on holidays, or get busy looking after visitors. Blood supplies always run low this time of year.
The Canadian Blood Services website, www.blood.ca, can help you identify any medication, health, or travel factors that could restrict you from donating. It will also let you book an appointment online.
The Dalai Lama calls altruism the true basis of peace and happiness. You can practice altruism by giving blood.
As the CBS motto says, “You’ve got it in you.” Please give.
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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
I didn’t get many letters about last week’s column. Beth Richardson asked for permission to print it in her paper, The Chautauqua; permission gladly granted.
Isabel Gibson flattered me: “I think this is one of your best. Maybe it resonates for me particularly because I've been turning over some related thoughts in my mind about public discourse and our civic life. I don't think I'm dyspeptic, but I think I'm seeing less willingness to even hear, much less entertain, opposing points of view.”
Isabel posted a link to the column on her webpage, on the topic of public discourse. See http://www.isabelforsenator.com/2017/08/16/public-discourse-today/
Tom Watson picked up on the metaphor of kicking the can: “There's a fairly important can that's being kicked right now. It's called NAFTA. It will be interesting to see what new agreements will be made when the three sides sit down at the negotiating table, to see whether or not they can come to mutually beneficial ‘new’ terms. And once agreements are reached, will all players abide by the rules, or will one player who always seems to be ‘It’ only abide when it's to ‘Its’ advantage?”
David Gilchrist responded to George Staley’s letter, last week, about the nature of God. “Didn’t Jesus say: ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’?”
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PSALM PARAPHRASES
Sometimes, when I’m writing paraphrases, I try to put myself in the place of someone the psalmist didn’t even know existed. With Psalm 124, I tried to think as an impoverished African nation, being “helped” by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
1 The odds were stacked against us from the beginning.
2 The great corporations strung us a good line
about caring for us, about bringing prosperity.
But they really meant prosperity for themselves.
When the profits looked better somewhere else,
they abandoned us. They always do.
3 The powerful nations promised us freedom;
they loaned us millions for a fresh start.
now we are enslaved by our debt.
They will not free us.
4 The arms makers sold us weapons
to protect ourselves against our neighbors.
They sold weapons to our neighbors,
to protect themselves against us.
5 Now our former friends are a threat.
We need more, and more, and more.
6 The only one not exploiting us for private gain is God.
7 If we have retained any faith in human nature,
in justice, in our own identity,
8 it is because of God.
For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.
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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
· Ralph Milton’s most recent project, Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal -- consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
· Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
· Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
· Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
· Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net
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TECHNICAL STUFF
If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.
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My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and about five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca
I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca
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