While waiting at a traffic light with her parents in Atlanta, Georgia, Kevin and Joan Salwen\u2019s 14-year-old daughter, Hannah, saw a black Mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other. Hannah turned to her father and said, \u201cDad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The light changed and they drove on, but Hannah continued to talk about the car and the man. She pestered her parents about inequity, insisting that she wanted to do something. \u201cWhat do you want to do?\u201d her mom responded. \u201cSell our house?\u201d<\/p>\n
Oops.<\/p>\n
Eventually, that\u2019s what the Salwens did. They sold their luxurious $1.6 million 6,000 square-foot Atlanta mansion, donated half the proceeds to charity, and bought a modest replacement home. (It wasn\u2019t quite as neat as that – the mansion took two years to sell, and the daughter was adamant they keep their pledge to the charity, so they borrowed from her college fund to keep their commitment.)<\/p>\n
Though the sacrifice was great, the benefits have been greater still. A smaller house has meant a more family-friendly house. \u201cWe essentially traded stuff for togetherness and connectedness,\u201d Kevin says. \u201cI can\u2019t figure out why everybody wouldn\u2019t want that deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The entire project is chronicled in a book by Kevin and his daughter, entitled The Power of Half . The aim of the book isn\u2019t to get people to sell their houses, but simply to encourage them to step off the \u201ctreadmill of accumulation\u201d \u2014 to define themselves by what they give, and not just by what they possess. Hannah says, \u201cFor us, the house was just something we could live without. It was too big for us. Everyone has too much of something, whether it\u2019s time, talent, or treasure. Everyone does have their own half; you just have to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reaction to their decision has been interesting. One website that covered the story has plenty of readers who thought they were promoting liberal godless socialism – that homeless person needed to get a job, not a handout. One person commented, \u201cIf only Mr. Mercedes had less so Mr. Homeless could have more? All coming from a sweet, innocent child. What\u2019s next? The big purple dinosaur having a \u2018Let\u2019s make Communism Fun\u2019 special on TV? Mr. Mercedes may have worked 3 jobs for ten years to get where he is today. Why should he have to give up any of his hard-earned spoils? Isn\u2019t that what America is all about?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another reaction is that the issue is not with the homeless, but the affluent. The Salwens advocate voluntary generosity, not government-dictated socialism. One person said, \u201cThe Salwens don\u2019t expect other people to sell their homes and donate half the profit. Their story is about the power of half; rather than say \u2018I should do something\u2019 or \u2018we should give more,\u2019 they\u2019re suggesting that you quantify that \u2018more\u2019 with \u2018half.\u2019 For example, one could take half the money he spends on coffee in a year, and donate it to an addiction center; or halve the time spent playing computer games and use that time to teach basic software skills at a senior center; or count the number of books you buy in a year and spend half that number of hours reading to home-bound people.\u201d<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Adapted from an illustration by Van Morris, Mount Washington, Kentucky; source: Nicholas Kristof, \u201cWhat Could You Live Without?\u201d nytimes.com (1-24-10)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While waiting at a traffic light with her parents in Atlanta, Georgia, Kevin and Joan Salwen\u2019s 14-year-old daughter, Hannah, saw a black Mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other. Hannah turned to her father and said, \u201cDad, if that man had a less nice car, that man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[377,562,774,376,776,775,773],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}