“Takers might eat well, but givers sleep better at night.”

— Unknown

Any parent knows that there’s a relationship between a child’s kindness and sleep. No sleep, crabby kid. Imagine for a moment that there is a relationship between fatigue and generosity. More tired, less giving. How would this look?

• A homeless person who is exhausted from trying to find their next meal wouldn’t want to give much of anything, only take.
• A tired parent would be less likely to play with or read to their children.
• An obese man who runs out of breath easily would be less likely to be generous than a skinny man.
• An overworked executive wouldn’t care much about his company’s charitable foundation.
• An elderly lady might not feel terribly generous due to the physical hardship of living.
• A child in the midst of a growth spurt would have no interest in helping out around the house.
• A woman working two jobs isn’t going to feel much like volunteering at her local food pantry.

Fatigue hits different people differently and these descriptions are very broad. Further, people’s tiredness ebbs and flows throughout the day thus I’m not really giving fair examples. Still, the stereotypes look awfully familiar.

Should they be accurate, the fix would be pretty straightforward. The cure for tiredness is sleep and the remedy for fatigue is daily exercise.

This is all just idle speculation; a little back porch philosophizing.

Should it be true though, it would be simple to be more generous – get in shape and get some sleep. Not a bad idea, anyway.

Stayed online to give today, playing freerice. Also, exercised this morning, something I try to do often. Maybe exercising is a form of giving.