I took a walk the other day. I take a walk a lot of days, but this was different. I was walking with a couple of thousand of others in a fundraiser for Alzheimers research. It wasn’t an especially nice day for walking–the wind was blowing too hard for comfort. But it was a good walk.
Going for a walk always seems like a mildly virtuous thing to do: clears your head (usually), makes you healthier. But this walk had an extra dimension. There was all that good company, of course. But beyond that, there was the knowledge that each step was not only making me healthier but helping someone else, too.
It made me wonder: What if some of our more creative and public-spirited wealthy could be prevailed upon to finance an arrangement whereby anyone who walks a mile knows x bucks will be given to the charity of his or her choice. Wouldn’t that be motivating? Get more people outside for the good of their health and help spread the money around. No substitute for raising taxes on the very wealthy or the minimum wage to 15 bucks. But it would be something. It would, for those who already walk, put that extra dimension into every step, make it even easier to get us out the door. The wealthy donors, walkers or not, would get the satisfaction of doing a good thing. And those of us without serious funds for charitable giving could feel that we, too, are helping others.
Maybe some clever Silicon Valley type could come up with an app to the apps already available to count your steps (like “Pacer”) to make it happen.
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