FROM THE EDITOR

By Ann D. Zeigler Nelson S. Ebaugh, P.C.

Pass It On
You can’t pay it back. You can only pass it on.

'Tis the giving season again. Given the horrific economy, this will be somewhat more challenging than the giddy years of Economy Past. But I have a Fairy Godparent suggestion for you.

You know about Fairy Godparents, of course. They’re the people in our lives who helped us when we didn’t particularly have it coming—the folks who gave us little odds-n-ends jobs so we could get by when we were starving law students, the ones who gave us cases that were too big and challenging for baby lawyers and helped us grow into them, the ones that told us what we needed to know as new homeowners (like where the main water shut-off valve for the house was, when we went on a two-week trip in mid-winter).

We can never repay our Fairy Godparents. We can’t even thank them adequately. (How do you say, “Thanks for not treating me like the complete moron that I was”?) There’s only one thing we can do—pass it on. We must become other people’s Fairy Godparents.

I’m not talking about the big time-and-money commitment here. I’m talking about making a small effort every day to be just a little more helpful, a little more generous with our time as well as our wallets.

There are dozens of agencies and non-profits that can use any kind of boost, financial or personal, any time of year. Pick up that extra bag of groceries for the Food Bank. Drop off an extra copy of your child’s favorite book or game at the school library. Volunteer a driving shift at Meals on Wheels. Sign up for an HBA committee. You get the idea.

I’m not even double-dog-daring you to do what I have been doing for the past eleven years. As you will notice from the photos over there, I just had my most recent haircut—another ten inches have gone off to one of the hair donation non-profits, to be included into a wig for an adult or child who is going through something vastly more terrifying than anything I could think of. How much effort did this take? Not much.

So, here’s the deal: as soon as everyone in your usual circle of share-the-magazine readers has finished with this issue (you do share, don’t you?), rip out this page and stick it at random into your paper calendar. And add a reminder to your on-line calendars of all descriptions, for some random date in 2010—FGT (Fairy Godparent Time).

Because you can never repay all those people who worked to get you where you are. You can only pass it on.

Happy holidays to all, including a special thanks to this issue’s guest editor, Hannah Sibiski.

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