Insights from Stephen King
I know what you’re thinking – “Stephen King? Bridge Communities? I don’t get it.”
Bear with me. I recently heard a message in which the speaker referenced Stephen King’s commencement address to the 2001 graduating class at Vassar College. In his address, King spoke at length about the importance of giving. The speaker also talked about how many of us aren’t “programmed” to give; it’s not inherently within us, and that’s OK. We certainly can nurture our own giving, practice it, and exercise it to make it stronger.
Take a few minutes to read and consider what Stephen King shared with Vassar’s newly-minted alumni. I think you’ll be glad you did…
“A couple years ago I found out what ‘you can’t take it with you’ means. I found out while I was lying in a ditch at the side of a country road, covered with mud and blood and with the tibia of my right leg poking out the side of my jeans like a branch of a tree taken down in a thunderstorm. I had a MasterCard in my wallet, but when you’re lying in a ditch with broken glass in your hair, no one accepts MasterCard.
“We all know that life is ephemeral, but on that particular day and in the months that followed, I got a painful but extremely valuable look at life’s simple backstage truths. We come in naked and broke. We may be dressed when we go out, but we’re just as broke. Warren Buffet? Going to go out broke. Bill Gates? Going out broke. Tom Hanks? Going out broke. Steven King? Broke. Not a crying dime.
“All the money you earn, all the stocks you buy, all the mutual funds you trade – all of that is mostly smoke and mirrors. It’s still going to be a quarter-past getting late whether you tell the time on a Timex or a Rolex. No matter how large your bank account, no matter how many credit cards you have, sooner or later things will begin to go wrong with the only three things you have that you can really call your own: your body, your spirit, and your mind.
“So I want you to consider making your life one long gift to others. And why not? All you have is on loan, anyway. All that lasts is what you pass on…
“We have the power to help, the power to change. And why should we refuse? Because we’re going to take it with us? Please. Giving is a way of taking the focus off the money we make and putting it back where it belongs – on the lives we lead, the families we raise, the communities that nurture us.
“A life of giving – not just money, but time and spirit – repays. It helps us remember that we may be going out broke, but right now we’re doing O.K. Right now we have the power to do great good for others and for ourselves.
”So I ask you to begin giving, and to continue as you began. I think you’ll find in the end that you got far more than you ever had, and did more good than you ever dreamed.”
If you are interested in exploring giving opportunities with Bridge Communities, please contact Amy Van Polen.
Thank you.
