"'Cos we can"

This was something spotted courtesy of a retweet from someone I follow:

a restaurant in the UK is offering a Christmas dinner this weekend for "anyone who needs one" (and can't afford it - they specifically asked people to encourage the homeless to come).

The retweet was a picture of their signboard, explaining what they were doing. At the bottom, it said, "We're doing this, 'cos we can."

I like that sentiment: not, "We're doing it because it makes us good people" or "we're doing this because we get some kind of tax write-off" but "because we can."

To me, that seems like a simple expression of gratitude. "We've had a good year and we can afford to give back."

I do some of the stuff I do "because I can" - I recognize I've been very blessed in this life with an abundance of good things, enough money coming in that I can have what I need and also a fair amount of what I merely want*. And it feels good to me at times to give back, and yes, in some cases, my motivation is "because I can."

(*And I honestly think it's not GOOD for a person to have EVERYTHING they want.)

(I once knew someone who expressed opposition to the local food bank, claiming it allowed people to "continue to be dependent." I don't know. I volunteered at that food bank and I think most of the people I interacted with would have much preferred to have their OWN money from their OWN job to go to the grocery and buy food. And I, myself, would almost rather starve than have to go and accept food from a food bank. And even beyond how you think about the adults, most of those people had kids....and even if a person might think it's OK for an adult, who, presumably in this person's mindset, "could work," kids can't....so if their parents don't, how are they to be fed? And yes, I know the government is supposed to do a lot of this, there's SNAP and all that....but if it took care of everything, would there be a need for food banks? I don't know, to me it seems very Scrooge to say, essentially, "But isn't there SNAP? Isn't there welfare? Let them use that...." I object to wastage of and fraud involving my tax money as much as anybody, but I still bring canned goods to food bank drives or give to various charities because I see them helping people, and even if there are some areas of government agencies where corruption looms, that doesn't mean the grassroots groups are no better.)

This is also why I do my little tradition of buying some toy that I think my brother or I would have liked when we were kids and donating it to Toys for Tots - because I can, and because I don't have a child myself to have the fun of buying toys for.