Philanthropy has to do with living so that everyone around us flourishes. Such a person was my grandmother.

My grandmother was born in 1881; she lived to be 107. She came from a family of farmers and small-town entrepreneurs and her father lost nearly everything in the Great Depression. Granny, as we called her, was one shrewd businesswoman, a person of vibrant faith she was  known for her generosity, wisdom and caring ways.  She had no more than an 8^thgrade education yet she saw to it that every one of her grandchildren received a college education.

I grew up in her home. When my parents separated and divorced my mother and I moved into her parent’s home. My Granny’s home belonged to everyone. She took in her maiden sister when she needed a home.  She took in her brother when his wife died, and illness left him in need of home.

My grandmother was what you would call a good neighbor. Her home was a frequent way station for individuals we called “hobos.”  They were people who hopped trains and wandered from place to place in search of food and work. As a small boy I would watch with curious eyes as these strangers quietly sat on the steps of Granny’s small screened-in back porch savoring her table delicacies. This too I noted, most of them never left without saying “thank you.”

From my grandmother I learned that whatever we may have in life, be it little or much, is not ours to hoard but ours to share.  From the hobos I learned that on receiving a gift, however small and needed, always remember to say: “thank you.”

Cotton Mather, a leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, encouraged his fellow citizens to create voluntary associations for the flourishing of a community.  He wrote: Live so that all your Neighbors will have cause to be glad that you are in the Neighborhood.[i]

[i]Cotton Mather, Bonifacius (“Doing Good”} See: Amy Kass, Giving Well, Doing Good, p. xv.