Undoubtedly you’ve heard the saying that someone “was born with a silver spoon in their mouth,” meaning that the person referred to is somehow privileged or had an advantage that he or she did not earn. I suppose that there were advantages to being born into a “typical” middle-class Midwestern US family, but I never felt particularly privileged.
I came from a family with two loving parents, and lived in a comfortable house with clothes on my back and food in my belly and an opportunity for education. There was not a lot of “extra,” but there was certainly enough of the basics required to live. You could say that I was born “with a spoon in my mouth,” but I’d call it stainless steel rather than silver.
Which brings thoughts of those who were born with something less than a spoon. Mind you, I’m all about working to support yourself and improve your position in life. Handouts, no (I drive right by the street-corner beggars). Hand-ups? Yes, by all means. I might give you a fish one day, but the next day we’re going to start working on your rod and reel and your tacklebox so that you learn to feed yourself.
My wife, Rochelle Forrest Hankins, spent her adolescent years not five miles from my home – we attended the same junior high and high school – but her background was, shall we say, less stable than mine. Loving parents? Absolutely. But opportunity? Only to the extent that she was willing to work hard to develop her own. Shelly, as I call her, began working to earn her own money and buy her own school clothes by the time she was 12 years old.
When Shelly and I got together 4 years ago (it only took her 35 years to realize that I was a “catch”), she was already well down the path of writing and publishing her “Shelly” series of children’s books and activity publications. And her mission – now our mission? To create a world of enough, in which we level the global playing field of opportunity for all. And that we do so, not by handing out, but by handing up.
Her “Shelly” character now lives through four children’s’ books, beginning with Shelly and the Circle of Light and ending (so far) with Shelly and the Bee. I am constantly amazed at both the simplicity of the message of each book (e.g., a lightning but who didn’t realize that she had a light and could fly) and the eye-popping quality of the illustrations (thank you, Terre Britton). I’ve seen kids’ eyes light up when they see the books. And her Shelly Shines activity book and teacher’s guide help bring the message home to parents, grandparents and educators who wish to participate in teaching the message of each of us realizing our individuality – our strengths in which we excel and can help others, as well as areas in which we lack strength and may need to rely on the skills or talents of others.
Whether it’s to raise money for a well so that kids in Phuket, Thailand have clean water to drink, bathe in or wash their clothes, or for children in South Africa who live in mud and grass huts; whether it’s for kids here in the US without enough food in their bellies or children in Cancun, Mexico who have love to share via beautiful drawings but don’t have families to go home to at the end of the day – I have to believe that as humanity, we can do better than this.
It’s really pretty simple. Logging onto smile.amazon.com (with “Tummies Minds Spirits” as your beneficiary) or logging onto ShellyShines.com – both websites will give you access to the books mentioned above, that your kids, grandchildren, students, neighbors, church members etc. will love and from which they will grow – and making these purchases helps do things like drill a well in Phuket, feed kids in the US or show those children in Cancun a bit of love. And by feeding first their tummies, then their minds, we can build their spirituality so that the love and enthusiasm that they display in their youth can perpetuate as they become teens, adults – and leaders in their communities, in their culture. By helping these youngsters realize their own value, the qualities that they bring to their own little corner of the world – we all come out ahead.
Not by just giving stuff away, but sharing and teaching of our own resources can help put a spoon in every child’s mouth. It’s a self-sustaining, perpetuating model. Won’t you join us?
