Negativity and selfishness gets great publicity in our social networking, indirect-contact society. You’d be led to believe the world’s running low on good people and that no one cares for or respects one another anymore. Their only concerns are themselves; and when they’re in need, no one is willing to lend them a hand without reward.
This is not the case. Kind, caring, selflessly-generous people still exist. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a shining example.
A widely renowned astrophysicist and best-selling author, Dr. Tyson is arguably the foremost scientific mind in America. He is Director of Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the face of acclaimed documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.
Dr. Tyson is also an award-winning pop culture icon. He hosts the popular, top-rated ‘StarTalk Radio Show’ where he and celebrity guests discuss the science of entertainment.
While good at what he does, he’s also a good person and one who believes in helping others.
I asked Neil deGrasse Tyson to tell me about a time when he did something nice for someone that he didn’t know. Here’s what he shared.
“I’m a fan of the following bit of philosophy. I think in Judaism there’s an understanding of charity that really lays it out.
There are different levels of charity. One of them is you know who I am. You have a need, I give you resources – the modern-day American chooses money – for your cause, and I require that you tell everyone I gave you that money for your cause. My name is on a building, or something, if I donate money to a cause.
The next level of charity would be I give you this money, you know I’m giving you the money, but I don’t need anyone else to know it. So, you do whatever it is you need to do with this money and my name is not on the building.
Another level of charity is I give you this money and you don’t know that I gave you this money! It just came anonymously, and it helps your cause.
For me, I care most about the kind of charity where if you really care about somebody does it matter that they know you did it? Does it matter that everyone else knows you did it? Are you trying to get street credit for this? Are you trying to get social, cultural gain by it? Well, at that level, is it really charity or is it a contract?
I have a whole webpage on Amazon where creative people design t-shirts and things, and they sell them. They get artists revenue for that and I get a return on that, and I take large amounts of that money and I give it to charity. I give it to organizations that are trying to make this world a little more rational, a little more scientifically literate.
They want to put my name in the list of donors, and I say no! I don’t need that! I trust what they want to do with the money. I trust that will be the right thing.
They know it’s me so it’s kind of hard to, consistently, give it completely anonymously. When I give to these organizations, I don’t need to be known by it. That’s doing something for an organization, an entity, or, in the simplest case, for another person and they don’t need to know about it.
It is in me to want to do this all the time, but situations don’t always arise where that can happen. But I look for those occasions.
There was a time when every day I would walk up to a total stranger and have some meaningful conversation with them. I’m a native New Yorker, and in New York City it was easy to find a tourist. If they were looking at a map, I’d offer to help them.
Now since I’m more recognizable, my anamniote is no longer there to do this. My lifetime expertise used in the few seconds I shared with them, saved them time, money, energy, effort, and it enhanced their vacation. Plus, they get to tell their folks at home that a complete stranger on the streets of New York helped them and wanted nothing in return!
That’s good PR for the city!” |THIS.
[By Mr. Joe Walker]
“We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving.” – ‘We Are the World’
