9. Be Generous
The art of giving with no expectation of reciprocation
The central premise of The Encouragement Manifesto is essentially one of generosity. To be generous is to offer more than is expected. Perhaps it is also ‘to give with no expectation of reciprocation’.
I crafted those words to open a piece I wrote as I tried to fathom the underlying spirit of generosity of the people who kindly said a wholehearted “yes” when we cheekily asked them to contribute to our collection of essays on the theme of one of the values in our Manifesto. I still find it astonishing that when you ask people to take part in something that is just an idea, probably only an outline of an idea, generosity unveils itself willingly, openly … well, and generously.
When we asked writers to contribute, we sent them the list of ten values and asked them to go with the one that spoke to them; no restrictions, no deadlines (unless someone asked for one because they worked better that way), no expectations.
No restrictions, no deadlines, no expectations
We were rewarded with writing of high quality, incredible depth, and often unexpected insight. Unsurprisingly, several writers took ‘Be Generous’ as their theme; I wrote about it myself to celebrate the collaboration between a published author ( ) and her mentee, Izzy Dignum.
Anna Koska delighted us with memories of her poignant memories of her late-Uncle George; Briony Phillips encouraged us all to celebrate those folk who show us what generosity means, and Katharine Barber reminded us that “words matter; use them generously”.
All three essays form part of the rich archive that underpins the Encouragement Manifesto.
We hope to add to it soon.
Perhaps you might be the next writer to join our small community of ‘encouragers’. We would love to read your words. Please don’t wait to be asked.
Just pick a theme from the Manifesto and start writing.