Philanthropy: (Fil-an-thro-pee)

It has been several months since my last blog. My world has been filled with ups and downs, ins and outs. I have tried to find a rhythm in life that works, but it seems to be ever elusive. My work has been focused on trying to create a movement that would have an impact on the culture, an effect on our society.
Much to my dismay, progress has been slow and roadblocks have been many. The road to significance is often an up hill climb.
Yet, on the journey, there are so many wonderful nuggets of wisdom and knowledge that we gain if we are just willing to take our eyes off of ourselves. I learn more by chance than I do by intention. For example, ever since the TV show, Oprah’s Big Give, many people have started to see me as a philanthropist. I started to wonder what that meant and who is truly a philanthropist. In fact, I wondered what philanthropist meant.
So I started on the Internet and I typed into Google, “P-H-I-L-A-N-T-H-R-O-P-I-S-T”

Word: Philanthropist
Form: Noun
Definition: One who practices Philanthropy.

Don’t you just love Webster’s? I obviously clicked on Philanthropy to find out it’s meaning.

Word: Philanthropy
Form: Noun
Definition: A philanthropic act or gift: An organization distributing or supported by philanthropic funds

By this time, frustration started to set in. But I suddenly realized that this was the general understanding in our society about what it means to be a philanthropist. You are either giving money or receiving money to do something that seemed to have some value. In fact, Google took me one step further as I clicked on philanthropic.

Word: Philanthropic
Form: Adjective
Definition: Dispensing or receiving aid from funds set aside for humanitarian purposes

And, finally:
Word: Humanitarian
Form: Noun
Definition: a person promoting human welfare and social reform.

After a few minutes of allowing my aggravation with the circular definitions of all the words settle, I began to wonder if being a philanthropist, as defined in Webster’s and by our society was really something to strive for. At the end of the day, was being a philanthropist about this never ending circle of giving money and receiving money. And was the purpose of those receiving the money just to promote human welfare and change or was it actually the act of causing human change and improving the welfare of others?
Let’s be honest, when anyone is asked who is the greatest philanthropist of our day, the names that come up are: Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet, maybe even Bono or Oprah Winfrey. All of them certainly take part in philanthropic endeavors giving money and promoting human welfare. Who better to promote change than Oprah or the billions of dollars that Bill and Melinda plan to give away. But if that is the only measure of philanthropy, then you and me and 99.999% of the world have almost no shot of ever becoming a great philanthropist. I started to become depressed and thought that I was a hypocrite to even consider myself a philanthropist.
Was philanthropy really just about money? Was a philanthropist only defined by the amount of money he/she gave or the amount of money he/she received from the givers, or, was there more to it?
I dug a little deeper into Google. I wanted to know, not what we believe philanthropy to mean, but rather what was at the root of philanthropy; what was at the heart of being a philanthropist.
Philanthropy developed from the Greek language with two roots:

PHILIEN ("to love") and ANTHROPOS ("mankind").

Putting those two roots together creates the true meaning of philanthropy, “to Love mankind”.
As I read this definition, my heart began to swell. It is no longer just the Bill Gates and Warren Buffets of the world who are capable of being philanthropists, but each and every one of us has the capacity to be a great philanthropist. But are we?
As I look around the world and around my community, I do not see philanthropists, in fact what I see is a world defined by another word: narcissist.

Word: Narcissist
Form: Noun
Definition: A person with excessive love or admiration of oneself

The world around us is shaped by the dominant culture. Our media, our politics, our way of life is determined by we hold dear as a society. The challenges we face as a nation are the challenges we all created by the way we have lived in the world. The narcissist sees the world as a place that serves them and their needs. A philanthropist sees the world as a place they can serve and meet the needs of others. The culture created by the narcissist depletes the resources of the universe in an effort to feed the excessive self-love and individual admiration. The philanthropic culture replenishes the universe by giving back the gifts we have been given as individuals and using those gifts for the love and service of our fellow man. Using our lives in a philanthropic way.
As I try to navigate my way through this narcissistic world, I find myself tired and drained by a culture that is always trying to take. I wonder what life might be like if we lived in a philanthropic culture. A place where all of us were giving back to one another and building each other up because of our love for mankind and God’s creation that surrounds us. In no way should this undermine individual achievement or personal goals. We all should strive to maximize the talents we have been given. But are the successes we have only meant for the benefit of ourselves? Or, could we possibly change our culture and use the successes in our lives for the significant love and service of others?
The road to significance is a road of change. Not just personal change, but cultural change. Are we prepared as a society to travel the road to significance? If we do, we will change the culture from success to significance, from selfish to service, from narcissistic to philanthropic. The road to significance is a journey through our culture, hopefully changing it along the way.