Step One: Decide on What to Give
One does not need to be an “artist” or consider oneself creative in order to give. If anything, selecting things which would normally be regarded as detritus is ideal: rocks, leaves, discarded plastic or metallic wrappers, or many other useless things. What matters is what one does with the object, not the object itself, per se.
Step Two: Decide on Where to Give
One needs to know the place and people in order to make giving something which is welcomed rather than an unwanted intrusion. Spend time simply observing. Spend time absorbing. If one feels tired after several hours, this has been done correctly as it takes energy and focus to be in a place and understand its needs.
Step Three: Decide on to Whom to Give
One needs to decide who will benefit from the giving: whose smile is needed in the universe?
Step Four: Decide on How to Give
One needs to decide on how much presence in the act of giving is needed. Objects can be left with a message, and the message can be incorporated into the object by writing on it. There are no rules: what feels authentic? Objects can be directly given. What will be said? How will the message of caring be passed? Iteration is our friend here; don’t feel limited: try different tactics and strategies. Treat it like an artistic experiment.
Step Five: Decide on Whether to Document the Giving
One needs to decide how much of a record to create and how to disseminate it if so chosen. I do not want to limit how other people take on this project – it is Do It Yourself Your Way! – but I have made available the option on this project’s website to document others’ moments of giving without cost. Simply email me, and I will set up these other projects within my maps so that the project visually continues to grow in correspondence with its physical propagation in the real world.
Step Six: Go for It!
The only regret one will have is not making the attempt. “At least I tried” is a credo to live by when consideration of the Other is literally at hand.
The Giving Project 