Dough
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like
bread, remade all the time, made new.
-Ursula K. LeGuin
as for my gift-giving, my plan was to have a bread-making workshop for some friends where i would buy them materials for bread-making and teach them how. unfortunately, finding a day when everyone is free has proven to be difficult, but that is my plan and i will most likely stick to it and let you know when i have been able to get everyone together.
at any rate, bread is truly symbolic. it feeds us and is a staple in most cultures. it is food that requires some human touch, and sadly, most food these days lack that. to me, bread represents humanity, and making our own bread is empowering, and i want to empower my friends through bread-making and remind them of that human touch, the secret ingredient in most good-tasting food.
The secret literary tradition continues…
From Secret Agent Hsing:
So I spread my $100 around this afternoon.Chose some books and hid bills inside to cover people's cost to buy. Asked them to drop me a note if the book ends up inspiring or helping them with something they've wanted. Not quite according to your rules, but it felt nice doing it.
Brewster’s kids
This report comes to us a year after being complete, but not a day late. In the Secret Society, it's never too late:
Not since Brewster had to part with his millions did someone have such a tough time deciding what to do with their money. I chose to let the 6 to 9-year-olds in my mentoring group make the final call. They each came up with one idea and we voted on a winner. Buying 5 people Metrocards. Supporting Haiti. Helping kids with cancer. Leaving $1 in 100 library books. Buying a pre-paid phone and having people call someone important to them. And the winner...helping poor families.
The kids decorated 40 sandwich bags with pictures and messages. "You are a star." "Don't worry be happy." "You are special." We filled the bags with healthy snacks and brought them to a local food pantry, attached to a school many of the kids attend.
There was still some money left, so we bought a loan through Kiva.org. We supported a restaurant in the Dominican Republic that wanted to buy spaghetti and chicken to feed the influx of Haitian refugees. When the loan gets paid back in 8 months, the kids from mentoring will pick a new loan to support.
Secret agents turned samaritan scouts
This story comes to us from an agent who is on a secret mission in Sweden, and thus unable to attend tonight's gathering:
Thanks to the zany generosity of the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy, and the enlightened leadership of Principal Kelly McGuire, I was able to provide 100 in small, unmarked $1 bills ('dollars for doers') to kick off a Kindness Campaign at Lower Manhattan Community Middle School as part of a school-wide effort to encourage random acts of kindness and promote empathic understanding amongst students. Samaritan Scouts will be able to submit mini request forms for dollar "coupons", for use at a small convenience store next door to the school (the store owner should receive one of them for agreeing to this!), which they will be able to award to one another in exchange for a brief write up of what they witnessed and why it matters. These "Caught in the Act of Kindness" incidents will be displayed in a large-scale exhibit the art teacher, Rachel Goldsmith, is working to design with students and which will be featured in one of the center squares of the school.
SF Mission 2011 (and we mean the challenge, not the neighborhood)
Across the city of San Francisco, in the deep fog of January, a series of events have been set into motion. In bars, coffee shops, restaurants, offices and homes, there’s been a changing of the guard. Crisp one hundred dollar bills have been slid across tables and counters with the same message:
...“With this hundred dollar bill, you are hereby inducted into
the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy”...