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Staying warm at Christmas

Is it just us in the Advocate newsroom, or did somebody turn up the heat this Christmas?
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Is it just us in the Advocate newsroom, or did somebody turn up the heat this Christmas?

At this time of year, people tend to be more reflective of their lives, more sensitive to the things that make our lives joyful, and more mindful that what we consider the “good things in life” are by no means distributed fairly. It makes people more generous toward others — and that’s why charities are more active at this time of year.

But this year, have you noticed a rise in room temperature?

Red Deer, it must be said, is a very generous place. We’ve been busy accumulating money to build a new Ronald McDonald House — $11.3 million of the $12 million needed up front before the residence near the hospital can open. Plus, we’re putting ourselves on the hook to keep it running. As well, this year’s Festival of Trees raised $875,000 in just a few days (and months of planning and preparation).

Small wonder the usual year-end drives for United Way, Salvation Army, Christmas Bureau, and the Red Deer Food Bank all seem to carry a little extra desperation behind them this time around.

If anyone has noticed the changes here, in the wider world, we would not be alone.

Earlier this year, Canadian author Lawrence Scanlon published his book A Year of Living Generously. It chronicles a year he and his family spent working for charities — a different charity each month.

The part of his viewpoint I’d like people to consider — since we’re all obviously so sensitized at Christmas — is Scanlon’s gradual antipathy to charity.

Maybe that’s too harsh a word. But when a hardcore volunteer of unquestioned empathy quotes Nobel laureate José Samarago thus in an essay in the Globe and Mail: “Charity is what is left when there is neither kindness nor justice,” how would you describe it?

In other words, when charities come visiting like Dickensian ghosts at Christmas, are we being played?

By no means does Scanlon — or anyone else — want you to close your heart to Christmas fundraisers. Quite the opposite. The point is that he wishes there were also more kindness and justice all year long, to go with seasonal charity.

In fact, Scanlon learned through his year-long immersion although one senses he already knew this when he started) that if anyone wants a good life, that is to feel valued and connected to the world, the key to achieving this is to be engaged in service to others. Time or money will suffice, he says, but committing to make the world better for other people will make you better for the world.

Nonprofits are not the only ones to notice this. Government, too, has climbed on that wagon.

Therein lies Scanlon’s malaise with the heat in the room. Maybe yours, too.

Too much of the burden of care has been downloaded to charities, he says. Governments are getting ever stingier toward social justice causes, and encouraging charities to fill the widening gap between the rich and poor in the economy.

But charity is not a sharing of wealth, strictly speaking, because only a few of the needy become recipients. Sharing wealth in this world means accepting higher taxes.

OK, while we wait for that to happen, we run on charity. At least in Alberta, personal charitable donations are matched with tax dollars (well, lottery profits, but we won’t quibble). Trust one who has spent a lot of time in fundraising, the benefits of that program are incalculable.

And the charities of Central Alberta are indeed grateful for the generosity people so easily show here.

We probably have no idea how many rooms are warmer because of it.

Greg Neiman is an Advocate editor.