{"id":4926,"date":"2023-11-10T06:04:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T10:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/may-sarton-on-generosity-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2023-11-10T06:04:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T10:04:54","slug":"may-sarton-on-generosity-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/may-sarton-on-generosity-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"May Sarton on Generosity \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Journal-Solitude-May-Sarton\/dp\/0393309282\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"491\" class=\"cover alignright size-medium jetpack-lazy-image\" alt=\"May Sarton on Generosity\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/maysarton_journalofasolitude.jpg?w=323&amp;ssl=1 323w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/maysarton_journalofasolitude.jpg?resize=240%2C369&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/maysarton_journalofasolitude.jpg?resize=320%2C491&amp;ssl=1 320w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/maysarton_journalofasolitude.jpg?fit=320%2C491&amp;ssl=1&amp;is-pending-load=1\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you,\u201d Annie Dillard wrote in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2016\/03\/28\/annie-dillard-writing-the-abundance\/\">her beautiful essay on generosity<\/a>. \u201cYou open your safe and find ashes.\u201d I feel this truth deeply, daily \u2014 for nearly two decades of offering these writings freely, I have lived by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/donate\/\">the generosity of strangers<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>It is especially gratifying to perpetuate the spirit of generosity if you have arrived at the ability to do so by way of struggle and privation. No one takes more joy in giving than those who come from little. <\/p>\n<p>That is what the philosopher-poet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/tag\/may-sarton\/\">May Sarton<\/a> (May 3, 1912\u2013July 16, 1995) explores in a passage from her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2016\/10\/17\/may-sarton-journal-of-a-solitude-depression\/\">endlessly rewarding<\/a> 1972 book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Journal-Solitude-May-Sarton\/dp\/0393309282\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Journal of a Solitude<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/journal-of-a-solitude\/oclc\/532306&amp;referer=brief_results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>public library<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_81258\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" class=\"size-full wp-image-81258 jetpack-lazy-image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=320%2C240&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=240%2C180&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=680%2C510&amp;is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1\"\/><noscript><img data-lazy-fallback=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=680%2C510&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" class=\"size-full wp-image-81258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=320%2C240&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=240%2C180&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/maysarton_1955.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">May Sarton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In her sixtieth year, after decades of struggling to live by her pen as she went on channeling the human experience in her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2023\/06\/28\/may-sarton-the-work-of-happiness\/\">ravishing<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2017\/12\/01\/may-sarton-canticle-6-considerations\/\">poems<\/a>, Sarton finds herself at last solvent, and giddily so. Reflecting on her belief in the \u201cfree flow\u201d of energy and means, she writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Both human problems and money flow out of this house very freely, and I believe that is good. At least, it has to do in both cases with a vision of life, with an ethos\u2026 I am always so astonished, after all the years when I had none, that I now have money to give away that sometimes I may speak of it out of sheer joy. No one who has inherited a fortune would ever do this, I suspect \u2014 <em>noblesse oblige<\/em>. No doubt it is shocking to some people. But I am really rather like a child who runs about saying, \u201cLook at this treasure I found! I am going to give it to Peter, who is sad, or to Betty, who is sick.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>She offers a simple, lovely definition of wealth:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Being very rich so far as I am concerned is having a margin. The margin is being able to give.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Complement with John Steinbeck on the equally important <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2022\/11\/21\/john-steinbeck-sea-of-cortez-receiving\/\">art of receiving<\/a> and Seneca on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2018\/06\/29\/seneca-letter-81-on-benefits\/\">what it really means to be a generous human being<\/a>, then revisit May Sarton on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2016\/10\/17\/may-sarton-journal-of-a-solitude-depression\/\">the cure for despair<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2023\/02\/12\/meditation-in-sunlight-may-sarton-amanda-palmer\/\">the relationship between presence, solitude, and love<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2023\/05\/17\/may-sarton-living-alone\/\">the art of living alone<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAnything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you,\u201d Annie Dillard wrote in her beautiful essay on generosity. \u201cYou open your safe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}