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‘Tis The Season
The end of the year is an ideal time to reflect and take stock. We customarily set our New Year’s resolutions around this time, and we tend to be very family-oriented, especially around the winter holidays. It’s a good time to appreciate our personal, familial and occupational growth.
These reflections always make me thankful for where I’m at—despite the year’s struggles, I have some core things to appreciate: I am healthy; I am married to the most amazing person; and I have a challenging job that I enjoy going to every day. It is easy to forget that much of this is due to chance. It is easy to think that all of these things are due to my own hard work. Though it is partially true, the sci-fi fanatic in me realizes that there is some parallel universe out there where I have been stricken with cancer; where I missed my future wife that fateful first day at the grocery store; where I have been unemployed for the past year. All it takes is one catastrophic event for the dominos to come tumbling down.
This past week our daughter was in the hospital for four nights. It was a little frightening, but we quickly realized she was going to be fine (she is home and happy, now). On the pediatrics floor of the hospital, she was the healthiest baby there. Our “roommate” was a newborn with Down syndrome, and our neighbor was a 6-year old who recently had heart surgery.
It is clear that, no matter what our situation is, we are more fortunate than others. Every one of us could be worse off, and there is someone worse off than every one of us. For that reason, it is important to give back and to help others. ‘Tis the season.
There are many ways to do this. As lawyers, we are encouraged to donate our legal talents pro bono. There are a number of organizations devoted to helping lawyers gain skills necessary to help draft wills for military personnel; assist special needs students to get the education they are legally entitled to; and to help women file restraining orders against abusive spouses.
We can also donate money. The end of the year is an ideal time to do so—reflect on how much you have made during the year, how much you have already given, and set a realistic goal of what percentage of your income you can contribute. Perhaps it is 5% of the holiday bonus. Perhaps 5% of your annual salary. But, it is something.
I was thrilled last night at the board meeting of the Maryland Association for Justice (MAJ) when nine people raised their hands and collectively donated $3,151 to the MAJ Foundation. The Foundation is the plaintiff bar’s new 501(c)(3) organization devoted to finding ways to help Marylanders. MAJ is using it to distribute bike helmets to needy children; to distribute smoke detectors to families; to provide school supplies to inner city children; to donate turkeys for Thanksgiving dinners; to teach children about the importance of the civil justice system in schools across Maryland; and much, much more.
Since 2000, MAJ has raised over $85,000 for its public outreach programs, and the Foundation is well on its way to supercharging that amount. If you want to donate to the MAJ Foundation (@MAJFoundation for Twitter users), call 410-872-0990, send an e-mail to Ashley@marylandassociationforjustice.com, or fill out the donation form.
Whatever your charity of choice, be sure to do something before the end of the year. Work at a soup kitchen, give blood to the American Red Cross, or donate money to any of the thousands of charities that help others.
Happy holidays.
