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December 26, 2010 3:06 am at 3:06 am #593743bombmaniacParticipantDecember 26, 2010 5:10 am at 5:10 am #722042Trying my bestMember
Great article. Try submitting it to Reader’s Digest.
December 26, 2010 5:14 am at 5:14 am #722043mexipalParticipantvery nice story. gives a little insight into what it means to care for others. where did you take it from? did you write it yourself?
December 26, 2010 8:53 am at 8:53 am #722044bombmaniacParticipantI did in fact write it myself.
December 26, 2010 4:06 pm at 4:06 pm #722045ItcheSrulikMemberIt’s not smart to submit something you posted anonymously online to a print publication because it can lead to all sorts of problems unless you publish your screen name with it.
That being said, it’s a great story. Someone should bump it every couple hours to keep it near the top.
December 26, 2010 5:14 pm at 5:14 pm #722046bombmaniacParticipantReader’s Digest does not accept fiction from freelance writers. And thank you for the compliment. 🙂
As for your concern, YeshivaWorld is not the only place I’ve published the story; it’s up on a bunch of other blogs and forums as well under my name.
December 26, 2010 7:31 pm at 7:31 pm #722047CedarhurstMemberYou should write a version applicable to a Yiddish setting.
December 26, 2010 8:45 pm at 8:45 pm #722048bombmaniacParticipantperhaps…maybe i will. i dont write for jewish readers though…its all for goyim. not b’shitah or anything, thats just how it works out…i wrote this for a non jewish publication meant as an inspirational piece and i figured some people here might like it.
December 26, 2010 9:02 pm at 9:02 pm #722049smartcookieMemberWow! Bomb!
Nice article. I was sure you took it from somewhere!can’t believe it’s your own work!
December 26, 2010 9:08 pm at 9:08 pm #722050bombmaniacParticipantlol im not sure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment 😛
December 26, 2010 10:46 pm at 10:46 pm #722051RuffRuffMemberBomb,
A really powerful piece, although I don’t identify with the characters in your narrative (B”H).
December 26, 2010 10:53 pm at 10:53 pm #722052smartcookieMemberSorry Bomb- didn’t mean anything!
What I’m saying is that I never knew you’re a professional!
December 26, 2010 11:03 pm at 11:03 pm #722053bombmaniacParticipantlol i know, smartcookie i was kiding 😛 thank you 🙂 and ruff as i said it was written for goyim originally…so yeah
December 26, 2010 11:38 pm at 11:38 pm #722054tomim tihyeMemberBombmaniac:
I immediately recognized the writing style from your posts! This post was more sophisticated, though. I enjoyed reading it, and the message hit home.
Care to share what inspired this?
December 27, 2010 12:19 am at 12:19 am #722055bombmaniacParticipantsure. it’s a bit of a long story…
so i’ve been a member of this forum (not a jewish one) and their goal is basically to change their world positively. lately however they have been in decline and they were looking for some kind of motivation to get them going again. so i posted something along the lines of “so what motivates you?” the idea being that i wanted to find out what motivated people in general in hopes that if i understand their more selfish motives i can use it to get them to do something selfless by appealing to their selfish side.
basically there are two reasons a person does something. because they feel a true selfless desire to help someone else, or because they get some other sort of benefit out of it. the for the first group the benefit is purely incidental, a byproduct i you will of their desire to help another. those people need no more motivation.
for the second group however, the benefit is absolutely essential. without it they will not do good for another, or they will, but halfheartedly and not very often. those people need motivation. so i figured id find out what benefit it was that was essential to them and find a way of manipulating that to get them to do something “selfless”
well, a friend of mine saw that thread and told me that it seemed a bit heartless, and to be honest it was. this friend told me to change it. so i took a step back, and analyzed it again, this time allowing for the human element. i basically came to the conclusion that what was needed wasn’t using their selfish motives to get them to do stuff, rather that it would have to come from within. but how to get a bunch of high school and college students to give of their time and resources?
passion is the answer. that age group is generally filled with a more naive idealistic view of the world; they believe anything can be changed. thus…they are easily made passionate about many different issues. they only need a little prompting to ignite this passion. so i asked myself, from both sides of the equation, why do i give a dollar to the meshulach. on the one hand id rather give to a meshulach that ill see the next day because i enjoy the recognition, but that motive is only secondary. when it comes to acts that are essentially selfless the selfish motivation is always going to be secondary because if it was primary you wouldnt be giving that dollar.
therefore the selfless aspect must be the primary drive behind the act of giving. so what is the incidental benefit of giving to another? well, it’s the look on their face. its the vibe they give you when you give them that dollar. its priceless. if that is the primary motivator when it comes to giving, what better tool to use when motivating people to give of their time and resources than a story illustrating that point?
when you give to someone else there is an intrinsic benefit to it, but unlike the motivator of recognition or whatever, the motivation and the benefit are one and the same. you give because you want to help and incidentally you get a benefit. but even if you do it for the benefit, it’s still one and the same because part of the benefit itself is the act of helping another.
long story short…this short story worked. more than any other effort.
December 27, 2010 12:43 am at 12:43 am #722056HealthParticipantBombmaniac -There are a lot of people in the frum community that are suffering and are too proud to sit out on the stoop for everybody to notice. I hope this brings some awareness to people about the less fortunate amongst us first and goyim second.
December 27, 2010 12:53 am at 12:53 am #722057bombmaniacParticipantindeed. however i get paid to write for goyim. i dont get paid to write for yidden. id love to…but i dont. which is why all my writing goes to goyim.
December 27, 2010 1:13 am at 1:13 am #722058frumladygitMemberbombmaniac you really have talent. I always throw something to the needy. Say even a 1$ or whatever I can. Sometimes part of my groceries I am shlepping like a banana. I feel terrible walking past a sleeping “bum” in a blanket on the subway floor in winter, just trying to keep warm. Sometimes when I know we are going to pass a certain subway station downtown and pass numerous such sights, I tell my daughter oh lets bring extra sandwiches to leave by their side. you can never know how this soul ended up in this terrible circumstance, and never the less its a child of Hashem. No one should turn a blind eye to another’s suffering!
December 27, 2010 1:45 am at 1:45 am #722059keepingbusy613Memberbombmaniac, the Jewish Press pays its writers that write in the teens and twenties talk section of their paper. In case you ever wanted to write for a Jewish publication too…
I rememeber when my sister needed to pay a bumch of people some small cash, she wrote a nice piece, sent it in, and she was debt free! (and her friends were happy they got their money 🙂
December 27, 2010 2:15 am at 2:15 am #722060bombmaniacParticipantid love to write for jewish publications! ill look into that 🙂
December 27, 2010 2:47 am at 2:47 am #722061amazingirl97ParticipantBomb:
I agree with Keepingbusy613. You can publish to a Jewish magazine if you like and get money together with it if you need a little extra cash or even if you don’t. but it is really a very good idea.
December 27, 2010 6:34 am at 6:34 am #722062bombmaniacParticipantthats a bit ambitious…id just want a writing position at an already established publication.
December 27, 2010 12:54 pm at 12:54 pm #722063The Best BubbyParticipantI have read this amazing article elsewhere. I can not remember which publication it was or which email I have received. Keep writing and make a difference to other people’s lives!
My very good friend is like frumladygit. She hands out sandwiches, muffins, hot coffee etc to people who are down and out. One never knows who they really are.
On the nights of the seder, when we open our hearts’ to many more guests, one of our son’s goes to a meeting place outside a kosher bakery on a main road and brings home lost souls that have no where to go for the sedarim. For whatever the reason, they have lost contact with their families and are real nebechs. One year, our son brought home a young man (among many others), with very long, dirty scruffy hair and torn trousers, with filthy nails, and not very clean with body odors. Really uncooth. For an absolute second, I was looking around our beautiful seder table, where he can sit and next to whom, when my Father Z’TL (who was a camp survivor) and spoke a heavy-accented English, said with the most beautiful smile and awave of the hand, “come Tatelah, sit next to me! I am the Zaide and I will show you what to do”! My Father Z’TL, (I am his siamese twin (in facial and charachter features, and we thought alike), was the most patient and sever panim yafot type of guy with the most bitachon and emunah. He saw my hesitancy for a second and saved the day. My Father gave him a cappel and spoke to him all night, and explained everything patiently what to do when. This guy was not asked any questions to embarass him, or why he had no contact with his family.
My Father Z’TL got very ill in the summer, and was nifter in Tevet. The following Pesach, after I had lit the licht and was crying buckets, all the menfolk in shul and I was alone with my Mom A’H, there was a knock on the door. I went to answer the door and a young man with nicely cut hair, nice trousers, sports jacket and a kippah was standing there. He asked for The Zaide (Z’TL), and if he could sit next to him. I did not recognize him, but told him he is more than welcome to join us for the sedarim but, unfortunately the Zaide Z’TL passed away. This was the same young man who came the year before. He soon came every Shabbos, and then he decided to go to Yeshiva in Israel and he became frum. He has B’H married and is raising a beautiful B’H family with his ezer kinegdo.
We don’t know the ripple effect that anything we might do will have on the next person.
May we all be zocher to do many mitzvos and maasim tovim and be able to bring back all our brothers’ and sisters’ to do the avodas Hashem!
December 27, 2010 4:26 pm at 4:26 pm #722064msseekerMemberBest bubby, I’m speechless! Wow!!!
December 27, 2010 5:21 pm at 5:21 pm #722065bombmaniacParticipantwait…what?> couldn’t have been THIS article…i wrote it last week and only put it on non-jewish sites…and i did not email it…
December 28, 2010 12:28 pm at 12:28 pm #722066The Best BubbyParticipantYes, Ihave read this great story already. I will try to remember
whre and try to get back to you through the CR, bli neder!
December 28, 2010 3:18 pm at 3:18 pm #722067bombmaniacParticipantthat would be much appreciated
December 28, 2010 4:53 pm at 4:53 pm #722068Trying my bestMemberbomb: If you wrote it a week ago, how can you appreciate Best Bubby showing you where she read what you allegedly wrote a week ago, from some time ago?
December 28, 2010 5:16 pm at 5:16 pm #722069bombmaniacParticipantbecause the chances of the articles being identical are nil. think of the story THAT would make.
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