Sanpeters, pat yourself on the back. Sanpete is geographically the “heart of Utah.” And guess what? — the most charitable state in America is Utah! The World Giving Index findings for 2020 were just reported in the news.

Based on a sophisticated methodology using “Volunteering and Service” and “Charitable Giving” with 19 key metrics, Utah came in at No. 1, ahead of No. 2 Maryland. Arizona slipped in at No. 49 edging out New Mexico, which showed up at No. 50. Here’s Utah’s other neighbors: Idaho No. 21, Colorado No. 8, Nevada No. 44.

Unfortunately, on a worldwide level, the USA doesn’t do so well in the reported findings. Based on their criteria, Indonesia was ranked as the No. 1 country in charitable generosity. America was No. 19, after having been at the top of the list for years.

It’s the “holiday season” and more than ever, our hearts and minds are, or should be, turned to helping those around us. I sometimes complain, like many of you, that we rush the Christmas season. I haven’t been in many stores lately, but I did hear “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” on the sound system in the grocery store the other day.

And I have to admit, here and now, I put the Christmas lights up on my house last Saturday. It was a beautiful weather day and it was great to be up on the roof looking over the neighborhood.

It was great, if you don’t count my body aches and pains as I stooped and knelt a zillion times fastening the lights in place. I won’t mention a couple of moments when I was close to the edge of the roof and was reminded that I’m not as nimble as I used to be.

I almost regretted cancelling that expensive life insurance policy a couple of weeks ago. I told the insurance agent, after I cancelled, that I was going to be very unhappy if I died soon. I had held onto this particular policy through getting results of a heart stress test, an episode of COVID-19, and a couple of medical procedures otherwise.

Let’s see here. Pardon me. I think I’ve lost my train of thought for a moment. We were talking about giving, right?

I grew up around giving people. I have many memories of my parents being examples of generosity. Our family was not rich and didn’t have an overabundance of “things,” but we were firmly set in the “middle class” of rural Utah.

I remember going with my mother as a young boy multiple times delivering food to families in our neighborhood. A lot of that food was what mom had “canned” in Mason jars from our garden and fruit trees.

I remember one family with several kids in particular. They lived in what had been a chicken coop or small farm shed. It was dark in there. They had an electric light bulb hanging down which lit things up. It left an impression on me when I discovered that their place had a dirt floor.

Long before “Habitat for Humanity,” my dad, as an LDS Church bishop, spearheaded a project to provide a conventional house for the family. Hundreds of hours of donated labor and many donations put them into a frame house. It was moved from another location, put onto a new foundation with a basement, and remodeled. That project changed lives – both for the givers and the receivers.

I try to be a giver. I’m not always as successful at it as I would like to be. I have a regret from a couple of years ago that I’ll confess here now.

I was at a gas station in Salina filling up my vehicle. An attractive college aged girl approached me with a gas can in hand. She wondered if I could give her some fuel while I was filling up. She said that they were on the road and were short on money.

I glanced around and noticed a van parked in the corner of the lot with some less than attractive people hanging around it. I made a quick, biased judgment and told the girl that I wasn’t going to give any gas donations. She wished me a “have a nice day” and moved on.

As I finished filling up, I noticed that she made the fuel request of a guy nearby. He, without hesitation, put fuel in her gas can. Part of what bugged me was that by my obviously biased judgment (again), the guy who donated gas didn’t look much like the “donating type.”

I stuck to my decision and didn’t call to her to come back, even though I was already feeling like I might have made a mistake.

I realize that many people are out to find “victims” to scam. I have turned people down lots of times in parking lots up north when people go back and forth asking for spare change. I think you have to go with a case by case feeling on these things.

The bottom line of all this is that there are many places that we can confidently be givers. This time of year, we should be thinking of “Sub for Santa” and “Angel Tree” type projects. Our local churches do good things and deserve our donations. There are so many possibilities of doing good by giving.

So, let’s keep on giving Sanpete and Utah. It’s the right thing to do. Even if we give a little to a girl in short shorts doing a possible scam at a gas station once in a while. — Merrill

P.S… For laughs: I recently flew to Africa to do some charity work. It was an eye-opening, shocking experience. The poverty, the starvation, the fighting, the smell, the noise…. I’m never flying coach again!

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