A Rise in Do-Goodism in 2009?

Will Do-Goodism make a comeback?

Hello readers.

Yes it has been a while. 2008 found us in foreclosure but we remain in Jamaica Plain, actually living in a cooler neighborhood. At the local dogpark the other day, I met a man named Joseph who told me about Neighbors for Neighbors, a JP-created template of neighborhood groups that the rest of the country would be wise to emulate. N4N is all about starting your own groups with your neighbors and keeping up on the local news. It's a great way to foster goodwill and fits in nicely with Obama's call for us to be one people: Americans. Guess I just wanted to throw this out as my first post for 2009.

One way I'm volunteering this year is through a student run organization at M.I.T. that invites local residents to teach whatever interests them to a number of local high school students who are willing to learn on Saturdays. I'm designing the curriculum for "The Short Fiction of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.," an eight-week class that will investigate some of his writing techniques and prominent themes. As an avowed humanist, Vonnegut thought that kindness was the one thing that would benefit us all in this thing called life. Now the hard part is teaching that to my students without being too square or didactic.

Happy New Year!