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Altruism Helps Our World Grow

Selflessness Moves the World Forward

Altruism is a fresh breath of air in today’s world. We are all painfully aware of the seams that have been ripped open in Charlottesville, Houston, and throughout the entire state of Florida. These tears are both manmade and natural disasters. Nearby, in Mexico, record-setting earthquakes and tsunamis also created more angst for the region.

During times of crisis, we do our best work. And maybe that is because it is not for ourselves, but directly for others.

And, as September 11 always reminds us, we grow as a nation every time we go through dark times. Each time we are able to rewrite the negative narrative with positive acts of selflessness. And each time opportunities abound in how we can suture up the wounds with healing actions and words.

As a business owner, I am involved with a county-wide project as the selected Erie County Poet Laureate called “Picture This”. At Monday’s ceremony, Remembering 9/11, I was asked to write and read a poem. I chose to create one from the Fred Roger’s quotation on how altruism helps children in times of crisis. His quote speaks about the wise words his mother would say to him when he saw disasters play out on the television: ” Look for the helpers.” Below is the poem I wrote for the occasion. May we all realize that in times of crisis that the helpers are as close as our own two hands.

 

Helpers

When I was a child and saw scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” Fred Rogers

 

When the sky filled with fire and the towers fell,

first responders poured into the fray.

Dug and dug and dug to find survivors.

Some served bottled water and pizza.

Others respectfully draped coats on the dead.

 

When the wind howled and the ocean rose,

volunteers stacked sandbags, hammered

plywood sheets over window panes.

Some gave their generators away.

Others gave up airplane seats for the elderly.

 

When the earth shook and cracked wide open,

rescuers pulled people from the rubble,

got them to stand single file, avoiding

downed pour lines. Held them close, closer

as they trembled in their own aftershocks.

 

Helpers can be found, quietly mending

that which has been torn, gaping at the seam.

They offer personal hygiene kits to homeless teens,

hand out stuffed animals to displaced children.

Listen, carefully, on the other end of a suicide hotline.

 

When the fire ate up the sky as the towers fell,

when the wind howled and the oceans rose,

when the earth shook and cracked wide open,

helpers were found quietly suturing the world

one stitch, one sandbag, one brick, one kind act at a time.

 

Marisa Moks-Unger

Erie County Poet Laureate, September 11, 2017

Written for the Remembering 9/11 Ceremony

Blasco Library of Erie County, Pennsylvania

 

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Use Mother Nature’s Clues for Ad Copy

Three Clues to Better Ad Copy

Ad copy directed towards women is often based on fear, helplessness, or envy. Anytime a television is flicked on viewers are bombarded with a wide variety of scenarios, such as:

  • fear over lack of correct life insurance policy leaving loved ones in dire straights
  • helplessness over whether the linens are dull, dishes are streaked, or carpet stained
  • envy over another woman’s white teeth, botoxed face, slim waistline, or youthfulness

To be sure, these emotions are all strong motivators. However, when we take a clue from Mother Nature, copy can be filled with confidence, courage, and contentment. Such a shift from negative to positive can provide a better reason to purchase goods or services.

Observing the Uses of Light

Take a hint from Mother Nature and choose words that shimmer.

Below are three clues to take from nature that use light while crafting ad copy – as well as other forms of business and creative writing.

First, consider the hours leading to and following daybreak. Dawn breaking, after a dark, moonless night, is an image that easily reflects a sense of confidence. Words associated with dawn include rise, illuminate, awaken, enliven, enrich, and fortify.

Next, consider the appearance of the sun breaking through thick clouds. Courage is found in such visual words as shining, streaming, casting, beaming, and pulsing. Brooding clouds that crack open and spill hope build excitement with the dramatic shift. Light overcoming darkness is a literary theme that spills over into fashion trends, interior design, and recreational events.

Finally, the sight of a rainbow after a raging storm conjures images of contentment.  The colors themselves and their hues of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet give way to even more words that border on spirituality. These include hope, faith, and love. Also, they inspire words of altruism: charity, togetherness, sharing, and gifting. Everyone, after all, can access these words as a pot of gold at the end of a figurative rainbow.

Replace worn out wording based on negative usage with positive wording. Then, ad copy can begin to do the work beyond the words. It can sell shimmering possibilities of services and products to change the world one customer at a time.

 

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Personal Journal Writing Soothes Grief

Observing Grief Gives Way to Beauty

Daily journal writing soothes grief and gives gift of beauty.
Daily journal writing soothes grief and gives gift of beauty.

Beauty is not the first word you may think of when the topic of grief comes up in conversation. Perhaps sorrow, dread or suffering, but not beauty. In the classic book on self-development,The Artist’s Way, author Julia Cameron notes that negative emotions can be neutralized through a daily journal writing practice, which she describes as Morning Pages. These three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing point out the extremes in behavior – be it overt sadness or over-bounding glee. And in that quiet place in the center, I have learned from practicing this daily method for over a decade, is where beauty resides within grief.

Not everyone is willing to find that center. They will reject it. They will deny it. Someone recommend that I suspend the grief “over there” – as if it were capable of being conveniently shelved for later inspection. The only problem is that grief is a tired ad weary travel companion, who will not leave you alone until you complete the conversation with it. And that conversation is one you have to have within yourself, which is why journal writing works so well. Send out a question disguised as a writing prompt: “What do I need to learn from grief?” Then, without judgement, write the reply for three pages.

I did this exercise recently in the heartland of Florida after my step-father passed away. He battled a long and debilitating fight with a slew of diseases, which turned his world upside-down. I was walking near a canal near his home at dawn, which was cloudy with the approach of a storm. Reflected there in the dark waters of the canal was every palmetto, every cattail, every lily pad that was on or near the shore. And I got a glowing feeling inside of me as I wrote down in my journal after the walk, “that beauty resides reflected in grief with memories of family trips and Italian cooking lessons just as the beauty was reflected from the shore in the waters of the canal.” It was a mid-life lesson to observe this lush land as I, too, observed the life of my father-in-law, who had a life filled with beauty.