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Last night I had the pleasure of being invited to a fundraising event here in Seattle for an organization called RESULTS. More about that in a minute - but first let me type in the text of an inspirational quote that was on a scrap of paper at my plate, complete with the right justification and lots of semicolons:

People are often unreasonable,
illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may accuse you of
selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

attributed to Mother Teresa

Reading this reminded me so much of my mother that I almost cried. She died five years ago this summer, and in many ways I always felt that she operated by her own rules and did all of these things - she was kind, honest and frank, serene and happy, did good in small deeds, and gave the world the best she had.

I donated $50 to RESULTS when the time came, which appears to be quite an impressive organization with a devoted and large cadre of volunteers around the country. No doubt one of them chose the Mother Teresa quote above, typed it in and cut it into a strip to put on my plate. Here’s their mission statement from the website:

RESULTS is a nonprofit grassroots advocacy organization committed to creating the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty. RESULTS is committed to individuals exercising their personal and political power by lobbying elected officials for effective solutions and key policies that affect hunger and poverty.

Note the political will part. RESULTS is a lobbying organization focused very much on “leveraging” influence on Capitol hill in the fight against poverty everywhere in the world. This is not usually my cup of tea, which is why I contributed to their education fund. However, I was deeply and pleasantly surprised to watch video presentations from Muhammad Yunus and Jeffrey Sachs effusively laying on the praise of RESULTS in raising awareness (and budgets) on capitol hill about the importance of microfinance and Grameen Bank and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Bill Clapp from Global Partnerships here in Seattle did the “ask” and I must say he did a terrific job. I hope we “made him look good” as he jokingly asked us for our donations.

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