From the Mall to the Goodwill

I've never known what it is, but malls scare me. Everything is always so white, and you can never find anything in there that you ACTUALLY need. Its almost like it is just one giant insane asylum for society, minus the padded walls.

To me, its a giant collection of everything I hate about our culture: flashy billboards, people soliciting you constantly, and advertising constantly reminding you of how you dont match up to the world's standards. Alot of you might say "Geez, man. Its just a mall." You may be right, since I tend to be a bit of a radical. However, there is something that doesnt sit well in my stomach when walking into a giant glittering collosuss of materialism, and its not just the cheap chinese food they serve there (what can I say? I'm a sucker for sesame chicken).

Strangely enough, the only place that I feel comftorable shopping at now is Goodwill. In reality, the whole place is one giant garbage dump for the middle class, whether its the old Barry Manilow records they are selling for a dollar or that strange man with the excess nose hair and strange accent that no one in the community is willing to talk to (I know a particular man who fits this description). The craziest thing is that I somehow feel so much more comftorable shopping among the maze of XXL shirts with the random people of my community than shopping among overpriced clothes with people who dont even know who they are. It makes me feel so much more at home.

I didnt know why this was, until I actually researched what Goodwill does. I was suprised to find out alot of this stuff, so I thought I might share it with you guys.

A quote from their website:

"Goodwill was founded in 1902 in Boston by Rev. Edgar J. Helms, a Methodist minister and early social innovator. Helms collected used household goods and clothing in wealthier areas of the city, then trained and hired those who were poor to mend and repair the used goods. The goods were then resold or were given to the people who repaired them. The system worked, and the Goodwill philosophy of "a hand up, not a hand out" was born.

We are North America’s leading nonprofit provider of education, training, and career services for people with disadvantages, such as welfare dependency, homelessness, and lack of education or work experience, as well as those with physical, mental and emotional disabilities. Last year, local Goodwills collectively provided employment and training services to more than 930,775 individuals."

The first thing that came to my mind was this: AMAZING. For the longest time, I thought it was just a store that sold crap no one wanted, but now I see how much more it is. I pray to God fervently that someday I would do something as worthwhile as this, because it is very much what is on my heart for the poor.

All I want to be able to do is help them, and no I dont mean throwing aid money at them and hoping their problems go away. That is exactly where our government has gone wrong. We have some sort of idea that giving money to the poor to spend should be the panacea to all their problems. Thats not what they need. They need people like Rev. Helms, who are willing to work themselves to death just so that people less fortunate than us could experience what all of us take for granted. A quote from him that I liked:

"Friends of Goodwill, be dissatisfied with your work until every handicapped and unfortunate person in your community has an opportunity to develop to his fullest usefulness and enjoy a maximum of abundant living."

Amazing man. If I could have one thing in my life, it would be to do something as influential and lasting as he did.

~Jared