For me, it's not the financial issues that mattered in this news report. It's the humiliation. I don't have to look at a mirror too long to understand just how flawed I am. In fact, it's so bad that all I can do is laugh at myself and not take myself too seriously. In view of my self evaluation I feel like I don't have anything to hide. I have no face to save. I have nothing to be proud of in an intrinsic sense. There is nothing innately good about me that someone could actually point to and humiliate me. Chances are whatever they say they are probably right - if not in whole then at least in part, and I can learn something from those comments. For me, I think if I'm humiliated about anything I've probably taken an unrealistic view of that thing in the first place.

There is a passage in the Bible that talks about unity among Christian people with respect to lawsuits they bring against each other. It reads, "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" While the context doesn't apply to the specifics of my life, I have decided to use this to shape my personal view of morality. As I am such a flawed person, I'm grateful to have been given so much. Not materialistically, but talent, drive, ambition, intelligence, and with experience, wisdom. I've received a pink slip. I've had my taxes raised. I've financially supported some pretty stupid causes. On and on it goes. If someone else gains by stepping on me, you know, so what. My experience proves to me that I'll gain both wisdom as well as strength from the situation. In the end I'll become a better person for having some perceived wrong done to me. So for the sake of others, and in hopes that they will also learn from the situation, I'll choose to be wronged or cheated. If nothing else I can sleep well at night.

There is so much to say about this, that a small post cannot do the subject justice. Perhaps I'll pick it up in a future post.

I don't want my father-in-law to think any of this was missed or taken for granted. He's been such a support to my marriage, and he's been a grandfather that does anything for his grand kids. When he didn't have to. I told him all this in his card, and he began to tear up. He deserves to know how valuable his life has been. And despite any shortcomings he may see in himself, he is pure gold in our eyes. The proof, so they say, is in the pudding. If you ask my kids, they'll second my words. Of course we're preparing them for the end, and as we talk through it my kids get quiet. They know what a great support their grandfather has been in their lives.

He never stops giving. Yesterday he gave me a copy of the instructions for how to donate his body to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for study once he's gone. Dad, we love you.

• 2 Blood Drives and ~200 pints of blood
• Provided toys for ~2,000 children
• Provided meals for ~100 families for the holidays
• Developed and held HOPEville, a homelessness awareness program with ~70 participants. Created new partnerships with Faces Without Places, Project Connect, and the Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.
• Presented on the subject of working with church leadership and volunteers to the HOPE worldwide US Chapter Think Tank
• Established a youth service aspect to the Cincinnati chapter that provides service opportunities to high school and college students
• Sent volunteers on 6-week Americorps assignments
• Sent volunteers on 2-week HOPE Youth Corps assignments
• Provided volunteers for Go Cincinnati
• Provided volunteers for three community safety fairs
• Placed a representative on the HOPE worldwide National Chapter Advisory Board and the National Youth Advisory Council
• Wrote and submitted a grant application to Impact 100
• Established and implemented fund raising and program funding conduits
• Initiated a grassroots communication strategy for development across the HOPE worldwide US Chapters
• Connected Cincinnati volunteers with other volunteers around the US and the world
• And, most importantly for me, created a vision and opportunity for other volunteers to step up and do things they didn't believe they could do

The "I" seems presumptuous, I know. Please understand that there is no way I could not have done this without a ton of help from some really great people. Please forgive me if your name should be on this list and it slipped my mind. Feel free to put it in the comments.

• Convergys Corporation's Chris Holtman and Brooke Beiting
• Lorrie Jenkins, Kim Isaac, Laura Huesman, Justen Harris, Livia Dilts, Gillie Collins, Lisa Craig, Eliot Isaac, Steve Ruhl, Kathy Baumhardt, Mark Baumhardt
• Two Men and a Truck (Hamilton East) and Meagan Rhodes
• Toys R Us (Florence) and Joshua Cox
• The Cincinnati Church of Christ
• Sogeti's Dale Sterling
• Empower MediaMarketing
• Cargill and Virginia Foreman
• Carespring and Debbie Moore
• Ideal Fitness and Connie Douglas
• The Myers Y. Cooper Company and Faith Taylor
• Crossroads Church
• Faces Without Places and Beth Griffith-Niemann
• Project Connect and Karen Fessler
• Impact 100

Tufte has taught me to put my name on everything (about 1/3rd of the way down), good or bad, so that I can take pride in and accountability and responsibility for my work. To keep me humble, I may post a list of all the things that didn't ship in 2010. That list includes some really important things.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

But we may be going about the whole pursuit thing the wrong way. The Dragonfly Effect discusses how social media can be leveraged for social change. And Daniel Pink takes three points from The Dragonfly Effect to show us how we may be thinking about happiness the wrong way.

1. "...researchers found that regardless of the amount, the group that spent their money on others reported significantly higher levels of happiness than the group that spent the money on themselves."

   The twist? Participants believed that spending $20 would generate more happiness than spending $5, and spending the money on themselves would provide more happiness than spending on others.

2. It also turns out that just thinking about money messes with our ability to make decisions that lead to greater happiness. If you spend your time with people and activities tied to money, well, you may wind up less happy.

   "One simple way to guide your decision about how to spend your time  is to ask yourself the question, 'Is what I’m doing right now going to be of lasting value to me or to others?'”

3. Social media allows you to "share your message–and inspire infectious action as a result." Your act of spending your money and time on others leads to your greater happiness. If you then share your story you provide others the opportunity and the vision to do the same.

   "As Khalil Gibran said, 'You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.'”