The Power of Half

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The Power of Half by Kevin and Hannah Salwen

First of all, I want to put a plug in for having a furry reading buddy.  Whether you are a dog person or a cat person, a reading buddy is a friendly thing!  

When 14 year old Hannah Salwen saw a homeless man she was bothered by the inequity she saw right around her.  The man in the next lane was driving a Mercedes while the homeless man was begging for a meal.  That started the Salwen's journey into giving.  They decided to sell their home in the suburbs of Atlanta and move to a home half the size so that they could donate half of what they made/saved to help others.  

I love this concept.  Many of us have extra time, talents, or treasures that we can give to those in need. What was hard to relate to was the scale of the Salwen's donation.  When they sold their large house and moved to the smaller house, they were looking at an $800,000 gift to give.  If my family did this (and I'm sure we could), our gift would have significantly fewer zeroes.  I had to keep reminding myself that their experience was different and that wouldn't diminish any efforts my family and I might make moving forward.  I say this not to discourage you from reading the book or from choosing a life of giving, but to remind us both that no one of us is called to solve all of the problems of the world.  Any effort we may choose to make to be a hand up for someone in need has value.

As part of each chapter there was a section called "Hannah's Take".  She did address this idea that each act of giving has value.  She also gave practical ideas that any of us could implement to figure out how we could best help and where we could do good.

My take away from this book is to reevaluate my own acts of service to decide how I need to be serving.  I also want to better research giving opportunities so that I'm truly a part of the solution rather than continuing to allow people to live in a state of learned helplessness.  The goal is to help people thrive not to continue in neediness.

So, I recommend this book to you.  Check it out at your local library!

Until next time...

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