May 2017

How does one normalize doing good?

These past few months, I've spent a lot of time reading (see my previous post) and thinking.

In particular, I've been trying to think about what it means to do good.

To be honest, I haven't come up with anything concise. 

So I decided to just do all the things. 

I wrote in a previous post about donating money as a means of pushing for changes I'd like to see. As part of that post, I committed myself to donating at least 5% of my income to various nonprofits to further those changes.

I also donated blood twice during that time (and signed up to donate blood again 8 weeks after-- the required recovery time in between donations) and I registered as a blood marrow donor through Be The Match, a nonprofit which connects people who need blood morrow donations with potential donors. 

There is also the day-to-day work of being in education in East Oakland, a historically socioeconomically disadvantaged area with many immigrants and people of color.

But ultimately, I've decided the biggest step in all of this is communication-- to normalize doing good.

Donating money, blood, marrow, work, compassion-- things that can be replenished-- should not be considered a noble act. Rather, it should be instinctual. When you have excess and stand beside someone who does not have enough, it is a natural reaction to share that excess. 

I hope to encourage others to do good, to the point where it no longer becomes a matter of doing good, but a matter of living.

Up to now, my approach to life has been to live as best as I can in my own way. While I've had my own opinions about many things, I've always just kept them my own.

Even though it's uncomfortable, I will speak out more to encourage better actions that can help others.  

Memorial day weekend in Tahoe.

My second weekend climbing in 4 months.

It's a strange thing, but to be honest, I don't really have many words to say about this. 

Maybe I ran out of words after all that I wrote for April.