When the COVID crisis began, hoarding became a real issue. Bigger than the TV shows about hoarders. We saw the arrest of someone hoarding thousands of PPE in Brooklyn. We saw medicine being hoarded and of course we saw POTUS claim nurses and doctors were stealing PPE equipment.
As we’ve gone into another month, I’ve felt a strong desire to stop hoarding. I’ve felt that I was depriving my readership and podcast listener-ship of inspirational stories. In fact, we all in some way hoard inspiration for ourselves. What got me to this realization was finishing ‘Northern Lights: One Woman, Two Teams, and the Football Field That Changed Their Lives’ . It’s an inspirational story on how the family of Super Bowl participant Carl Parker and his wife Cathy changed the lives of Barrow, Alaska. I highly recommend it!
After finishing the book, I was determined to bring it back to the bookshelf I found it in NYC. Yes , during the pandemic , I made sure to return the book because I did not want to hoard the inspiration I found in it. Have you ever had a book so good you not only didn’t want to put it down, but you also wanted to keep it forever?
Perhaps, this crisis can change that thinking. During COVID-19, we’ve all desperately been looking for inspiration whether through podcasts, books, radio or TV docs like ‘The Last Dance’. If we are so eager to take IN inspiration, why not GIVE OUT inspiration to those who also need it. Have a book you really love and are inspired by? Then pass it on to a friend who might be looking for some hope to cling on to.
Know of stories that should truly live on? Then tell them instead of hoarding them to yourself. I get that we all need to be inspired, but by paying it forward, inspiration can become internalized as well. In fact, if you tell your story or a story of inspiration you might just make this world a better place than you left it.
I could say the same for the public bookshelves and libraries in communities . When this crisis is eased off and people start to normalize and these libraries open up again, pass those hard-covers or paper-backs along with not even the intent of giving it back. Pass them on to uplift others could make you the difference-maker you didn’t know you could be!
The Writings of Alex Garrett 