Life Has Its Natural Rewards

The photograph I've used today is of Washington state resident Marian Hauge accepting an award pin (that's her in the purple cloth) for having given $5,000 of her own money to a Pacific Northwest Jewish National Fund for one of their pet projects. I have to ask myself, why in the world is she being rewarded for donating money?

Public television & radio offer similar deals when an individual donates money or becomes a “subscriber” to the broadcast facility. They rely heavily on that practice and the rewards for donations or premiums as the industry calls it are plentiful and consist of DVDs, CDs, autographed books, posters, tickets and other fancy trinkets.

Car companies, banks, credit card corporations, gymnasiums and department stores all offer incentives to individuals who use that particular company’s charge card or membership or buying their products and offer freebees such as ball caps, jackets, plastic mugs, pens, pencils, key chains and tee shirts with their logos emblazoned on it as they sign on the dotted line.

Individuals and organizations donate to social causes all of the time, including for profit, not-for-profit and political campaigns.

For these folks, their rewards are having a dinner thrown in honor of their donations, meeting a candidate or elected official at a cocktail party, reception or a high society affair and having their smiling mugs photographed with the high and mighty and getting it published in either an artsy-fartsy magazine or newspaper.

It’s a confusing message to send to our children.

13 years ago when I was a cub reporter for The Des Plaines Journal, I helped the city of Des Plaines’ consumer affairs division, break-up a fly-by-night boiler room operation for a phony charity based in Lincoln, Nebraska that preyed on senior citizens by offering them a prize if they donated a certain amount of money to their charity, which I believe was called “Save Our Children,” as opposed to the legal and above-board charity “Save The Children.”

An individual man who I spoke with at the time had already donated $3,000, yet had not received a “prize.” That’s when I intervened and helped the city department, along with the help of the local FBI office in Lincoln, Nebraska crack the case.

In turn, the City of Des Plaines Department of Consumer Affairs’ spokesman Robert Hinde cited me for my ability to crack a case that no one else had been able to do previously and thankfully brought this problem to a close.

But you know what? I didn’t expect anything because I was just doing my job. And that’s how I’ve always felt about awards and rewards. When I do something that is heartfelt, I don’t expect anything in return.

We as individuals have become accustomed to receiving trinkets and accolades for doing what we’re supposed to be doing, whether it’s keeping people entertained, safe on city streets or the Internet, giving us a warm, happy and healthy glow.

Be it as it may or whatever we do as humans, we make impact and impressions upon others and we shouldn’t have the need to receive or expect awards or little tokenism trinkets, for isn’t giving something away on your own set of values, reward enough?

I believe in a simple philosophy; expect the unexpected; the rewards will be reaped plentiful and tenfold when you follow this simple approach and apply it to your life.

Just ask The Arizona Babe, Blog-19 or any number of individuals that I know of, including yours truly, The MishegasMaster, who know that when the rewards come, they are both mighty and satisfying.

Smiles, hugs and handshakes are all we really need.

Don’t you believe more of us humans should go for the old (old-fashioned values) as opposed to the gold (trinkets)?

Yes! It’s about time we should!