Generous and Poor vs. Stingy and Rich

Her clapboard house, nestled in the side of a hill, is the size of some mansion bathrooms. Soon to be 86, "Beatrice" has lived here all her life. Never married and her family all gone, she manages to survive on, well, kindness. She gives it and others share it. Foreign concept, I know.

With rightful attention directed at challenging billionaires to share their wealth, some of whom need to be pried from their money with a crowbar, I can't help but compare the two opposite ends of the spectrum — the Beatrices of the world and the "greedy gopher guts," the ultimate insult us Nilan kids would mutter about some of my dad's clients who wouldn't toss quarters in the pool for us to retrieve (and keep!).

My brush with Beatrice's generosity came at the peak of berry season. Her family property, adjacent to my sister and brother-in-law's, happens to contain a berry patch teeming with luscious fruit, soon to be spoiled. Getting Beatrice's call for "help," my sister and I grabbed pails, sprayed citronella on our limbs, and plunged into heaven. Pick, eat, save. A good system.

Listening to Beatrice talk as she picked about how she's only the steward of this land was the whipped cream on the berries. If more people with more would be generous, we would live in a different world.

Amazingly, this spunky woman not only shares with neighbors, but also volunteers at the local homeless shelter. She was lamenting the increase of problems at the shelter with people — volunteers as well as clients and community members — taking more than their share of the donated food and clothing, then selling it at garage sales. It's a tale that I'm painfully familiar with from my shelter days: the reality of underpaid staff, under-supervised facilities, need and greed.

I've been reading other accounts of misguided, in my mind, nonprofit operations. I can't grasp a CEO of a nonprofit that feeds the poor, Angel Food Ministries near Atlanta, earning upwards of $1 million, while employing family members at similarly outrageous salaries. Oh yeah, a (non-profit!) corporate jet and many other perks. In this debate printed in the newspaper the mega-bucks-earning CEO explains and someone who thinks it's a tad much questions. Interesting ....

A little more than a year later we read a recent report of financial problems (duh!) at this troubled Georgia nonprofit. It's now laying off employees.

Seems to me now more than ever we need nonprofits and faith-based organizations to patch, rather than destroy, the safety net shredded by use and neglect. For those readers ready to criticize well-intentioned nonprofits that cannot manage to control resources, I'd suggest government and for-profit corporations might also need a bit more oversight. I say we put Beatrice in charge. Berry picking and sharing instead of picking and stuffing pockets, for a change.

Photo credit: Diane Nilan