“Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.”

  — G.B. Stern

I answered this thought-provoking challenge from sparked.com today.

“Our donors do a lot for us and we want them to feel super special. Can you write the kind of thank you note that you would want to receive? “

That’s a great question. A generic thank you is a little difficult, but I think this is what I would like people to say to me.

Dear Eric,

Thank you for your time and help. Without you, we would not have gotten it done. Your perseverance, your kindness, and your willingness to put aside your needs for ours says that we mean something to you, even if it was just for a few hours.

There is so much wasted time in the world today. Our politicians spend their days finding ways to disagree instead of finding ways to agree. Wall Street sinks on the crisis du jour. Occupy Wall Street sinks to their knees in protest shouting against corporate greed, but does not offer solutions to how to fix it. Tea Partiers yell all taxes are bad from their cars while driving on streets paved with tax money. Pundits who know better than us shout at each other in ten second sound bites.

Hedge fund managers spend their lives investing in companies whose sole purpose is to produce profits for their shareholders, only caring if their portfolios rise or fall. Traders order computers to trade oil futures every second not concerned what the price of gas does to a consumer. Basketball millionaires go on strike for months because four billion dollars is too hard to split up.

Homeless people go hungry every night while we argue the merits of dropping a quarter in their cups. We scream when our Blackberry’s fail to send us our messages in an instant, but we cannot be bothered to spend a minute to write a letter of appreciation.

The latest gadget from Amazon or Apple grabs our attention for days even though it will be obsolete in a few months. We spend hours playing Angry Birds and Farmville.

But you, Eric, you gave us a few hours. A few hours of your time. You gave us a smile and hard work. You did not ask for anything and even thanked us when we gave you a cookie and glass of lemonade.

Please do not get us wrong, we know there are good people doing good things in the world. There are people like you who will give up their time, but we need more. It takes time to solve problems like homelessness, hunger and poverty. But with people like you helping us, we can do it.

We *do* have time to make a difference. Thank you.

— Someone who appreciates you

How would you like to be thanked?

Gave a few ideas to the Sunshine Children’s Charity on what I would like to see in a thank you. I hope you all find people who appreciate what you do for them.