Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. ~Booker T. Washington
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up. ~Mark Twain
Today is Giving Tuesday. (I’m certain you are aware of this, if your overflowing inbox is anything like mine.)
Which reminded me of something that happened last week that you may already have heard about (if you’re on my email list). It’s a sortof-sad story, with a happy(ish) ending.
I started last Wednesday dashing down the basement stairs to discover (to my horror) water coming down from the ceiling like rain.
Then I spent hours with a mop and more bleach than is probably safe. And then I spent more hours with plumbers Steve and Josh – some of the nicest humans around, who weren’t able to fix the plumbing problem immediately but sure made me feel better about people.
These two guys stayed way past dark, on Thanksgiving Eve, for me – a complete stranger. And as I sat out on the porch in the crisp autumn air, looking up at the bright moon overhead, I overheard them taking calls from their families and explaining in low voices they were going to be just a smidge late tonight…
As I heard them beg forgiveness for being late for dinner because they were going to stay late to try to help me …
My heart grew three sizes.
They couldn’t fix our problem that day, but they assured me they’d come back on Monday – even though they had a full schedule.
“It’s no problem. We’ll just come over after all of our other jobs are done,” Steve promised.
I was gobsmacked. And they were true to their word.
Yesterday they returned, and I’m happy to say they were able to get everything up and running again. They literally cheered, as did I.
As he walked down our porch steps to leave yesterday, Josh turned to me, hesitated for half a beat, and said – “I’m really glad we were able to fix this for you.”
He was wearing a mask, but his eyes were smiling.
And it reminded me about how genuinely happy it makes us to do something nice for other people.
It’s how we’re wired.
In 2017, researchers at the University of Zurich found that even just intending to do something generous makes you feel happy. Researchers promised to give a group of people money in the coming weeks – with a condition. Half committed to spending the money on themselves. The other half committed to spending the money on someone else.
The group that had to spend the money on someone else was uniformly happier.
Even more interesting? MRIs conducted while the participants considered how much they should give and to whom showed strong interaction between the happiness center of the brain … and the part of the brain that processes generosity.
In other words, just deciding to be generous made them … happier.
Other researchers have found that people who are generous tend to live longer and have better health. Studies of people with high blood pressure showed that spending money on others lowered blood pressure as well as medicine or exercise. (Note that they didn’t consider other, non-monetary ways of helping – the study was limited to what’s referred to as “pro-social spending,” perhaps because that’s the easiest to measure.)
Being selfless is selfish, in a way.
The studies don’t say why our happiness centers light up when we do something generous, but I have my own theories.
There’s power in helping others. You can exert control over your own life by helping others feel comfort – even if you’re uncomfortable.
And right now, as we’re reeling through this era of deep uncertainty and discomfort, I think it’s important to remember that sometimes the best gift we can give ourselves … is helping someone else.
It’s hard to feel steady, or confident, or assured of anything. But you do control some of the most important things:
You have complete control over how good you are.
You have complete control over how helpful you are.
You have complete control over how much you look out for others.
You have complete control over to what extent you live your values.
You decide every day what things you’ll do, what actions you’ll take, what effort you’ll exert to help right the ship and to keep your fellow passengers safe in the meantime.
So in these uncontrollable times – even on those days when everything seems to go wrong – remember the control that you do have.
And take it with both hands.
Let’s get to work.
Actions for the Week of November 28, 2023
Call Your Congresscritter: George Santos Has to Go
Just today a resolution was re-introduced to expel Congressman George Santos – and via the procedural method used, it will be voted on within two days. As you no doubt are aware, Santos is under federal indictment for multiple campaign finance violations. An ethics committee investigation concluded he violated multiple campaign finance laws (to put it mildly). If he refuses to resign (which he has, so far) he needs to be expelled.
Expulsion requires 2/3 of the house – so it’s important to call your Congresscritter and urge them to vote to remove him.
Script: Hi, my name is [name] and I’m a constituent at [zip]. I’m calling to urge the Congress[wo]man to vote to expel George Santos. The bipartisan ethics committee’s report is clear, and his conduct is disgraceful.
Share Away!
It’s very hard to compete with the Republican misinformation machine. But we can try. In fact, it’s one of the things that pollster and Hopium expert Simon Rosenberg thinks we need to focus on. I think he’s right.
There’s a LOT to applaud. You can see the administration’s accomplishments here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/ A few highlights:
- Nearly 11 million jobs have been created since President Biden took office – including 750,000 manufacturing jobs. The unemployment rate is at a 50-year low, and a record number of small businesses have started since President Biden took office.
- In two years, companies have announced nearly $300 billion in manufacturing investments in the United States.
- Right now, four out of five people who sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act can find health care coverage for $10 a month or less and millions of Americans on Obamacare are saving an average of $800 a year. Since he took office, there has been a combined 50 percent increase in enrollment in states that use HealthCare.gov and the nation’s uninsured rate is historically low at 8 percent. Over 16 million Americans signed up for quality, affordable health coverage, the highest number ever produced in an open enrollment period.
There’s a lot more – and graphics to go with each point. You should check it out. Honestly, reviewing the work of the administration reminded me of why I voted for President Biden in the first place.
Over the holiday, the Biden campaign put out a few social media graphics intended to help you in any … err… spirited debates with family over Trump vs. Biden accomplishments. You should check them out, but also go read Rachel Bitecorfer’s excellent how-to on Pivot & Attack – even if just to understand how Republicans seem to squirm away from fact-based arguments so effortlessly. You can do that here.
Are You a Whiz With Wikipedia?
VoteRiders is looking for volunteers to join their Wikipedia team and help update VoteRiders wiki page with factual and reliably sourced material. They provide the training and ongoing support. Learn more here: https://www.voteriders.org/volunteer/
And if you live in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or Wisconsin, VoteRiders is looking for “Super Volunteers” to support them in those states. Again, learn more here: https://www.voteriders.org/volunteer/
And regardless of where you live, you can be one of their virtual volunteers from across the country and provide free assistance to eligible voters in key voter ID states. Again, learn more here: https://www.voteriders.org/volunteer/
Do Something Kind!
Here’s a simple one – just do something kind for someone this week. As Jessica Craven said recently – politics is about people. So let’s go out and make someone’s day a little bit brighter.
WHEW! GO TEAM!
P.S.: Why don’t you make someone’s day and send this pep talk to a friend or two? I bet they need it.
If you’d like to sign up to get this pep talk and action list in your in-box each week, you can do that here. Welcome, friend!
P.P.S.: If you want to help support this work you can do so via Patreon at
https://www.patreon.com/smalldeedsdone or via paypal at https://www.paypal.me/smalldeeds
My deepest gratitude in advance.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for writing. I read and respond to every email! We’re in this together. Don’t you forget it.
Small Deeds Done 