The Power of Idealism

Hello I’m Tricia, and I’m a FeelGood alum brought here to babble on about my thoughts about life with some sort of common theme related to feelgood! A mini bio on me: I work in the health field, and in the fall will be returning for another round of college for nursing school! So if in a couple months my posts happen to sound like a nursing school assignment turned blog ummmmm that may be because they are.

To echo “Flawger’s” post, whoever has stumbled upon this website, or who is now reading this is obviously a fantastic person, so thank you for being all that you are.

This month’s thoughts were inspired by the Salwens, a family in Atlanta Georgia who recently sold their home, bought a house half the size, and gave the difference ($800,000) to The Hunger Project!

This massive action came about because Hannah, the 14 year old daughter was feeling increasingly concerned about the wealth inequality she saw in her hometown and in the world. Nicholas Kristof in his article about the family laments “Warning! Never suggest a grand gesture to an idealistic teenager!”

I just finished taking a Developmental Psychology course, where we learned that adolescents tend to think with intuition - where thoughts form from feelings, with less logic or analysis involved. Logic and analysis develop as experiences where certain intuitive thinking brings upon poor results and as the brain continues to develop.

While it’s great and very useful that we grow into more logical beings, I can't help but think that we lose quite a bit of the creativity and a belief in new possibilities that we once had. This family took their children’s ideas, validated them and created a possibility that not only enabled them to give $800,000 to a fantastic organization; it shifted the family's perspectives on each other as well as humanity.

I can't help but see why they picked The Hunger Project who believe in validating people’s ideas, making the impossible possible and ‘unleashing the human spirit’.
FeelGood is set up in the same way. It is a simplistic idea - feeding hungry college students, while at the same time embracing idealism and bringing about results. Many logical, reasonable arguments about health codes and exclusive dining contracts have come up along the way, but in most circumstances idealism + realism has won out.

This family did what they could do to benefit mankind; in their case it was to downsize their house. Obviously not everyone has the financial means to do that, but everyone can do something (grilled cheese anyone?) So get to it! Fire up the grills! If you’re not on a FeelGood campus bring your childhood ideas back (or listen to your kids ideas if you have them) and be the changemaker that you know you are!

-Tricia ‘Big Dreamer’ Selin

P.S. Read the quoted Nicholas Krisof article (which by the way I think is a great article besides a few uninspiring sentences) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/opinion/24kristof.html?emc=eta1

P.P.S. Also if anyone reads the book (The Power of Half by Kevin and Hannah Salwen) let me know what you think! (Yeah, I probably should have read the book before writing this post; however it was responses to the book that got me fired up, so uh, that’s how it goes…I promise it’s on my reading list!)
I also just discovered their website, check it out http://www.thepowerofhalf.com/