Beg For Your Life

A book about the author's art and life experiences, written in a way we can all relate to.

Do you ever wonder… What does she have that I haven’t got? Why doesn’t he ask me out? What makes her popular? Why not me? Maybe it’s time to change the questions you’re asking. Maybe it’s time to ask instead: What does it take to become magnetic? Packed with revealing quizzes, interviews with guys, and practical tools, Magnetic empowers you to: · Move beyond negative thoughts, capricious emotions, and others’ opinions as you gain unshakeable confidence. · Limit the draining affect of “girl drama” so you can invest your time in becoming the best you. · Replace the agonizing frustration of wanting to be noticed and liked with a deep assurance that you already are. As you live out nine amazing characteristics—known as the fruit of the Spirit—you will not only cultivate an inner and outer beauty, but you will also hold an irresistible appeal for godly guys. Shift your focus from a guy to the Guy and become the magnetic young woman God created you to be.

Beggars and begging were ubiquitous features of pre-Famine Irish society, yet have gone largely unexamined by historians. This book explores at length for the first time the complex cultures of mendicancy, as well as how wider societal perceptions of and responses to begging were framed by social class, gender and religion. The study breaks new ground in exploring the challenges inherent in defining and measuring begging and alms-giving in pre-Famine Ireland, as well as the disparate ways in which mendicants were perceived by contemporaries. A discussion of the evolving role of parish vestries in the life of pre-Famine communities facilitates an examination of corporate responses to beggary, while a comprehensive analysis of the mendicity society movement, which flourished throughout Ireland in the three decades following 1815, highlights the significance of charitable societies and associational culture in responding to the perceived threat of mendicancy. The instance of the mendicity societies illustrates the extent to which Irish commentators and social reformers were influenced by prevailing theories and practices in the transatlantic world regarding the management of the poor and deviant. Drawing on a wide range of sources previously unused for the study of poverty and welfare, this book makes an important contribution to modern Irish social and ecclesiastical history. An Open Access edition of this work is available on the OAPEN Library.

About the Book: This book explores our ideas of self, repeatedly revealing "who we are not" to gently bring us into peace without attempting to alter our external conditions. It is well known that when we dissociate ourselves from all our worldly identities, we will naturally come to peace. This book lays out a clear roadmap to achieve enduring peace through detachment. But detachment does not mean renouncement of all types of pleasures and living a life of inactivity and boredom. In truth, detachment can relieve us of all the burdens and baggage we carry, leaving us free to enjoy all the genuine pleasures available on earth to the fullest. The only condition is that we must not cling to the pleasures but be ready to let them go freely. Hence our life here can be one of unending joy and achievement. About the Author: Born in 1960 in the rich culture of South India and educated in English, he was exposed to two opposing world views enabling him to achieve synergy and realize true harmony. He belongs to the linguistic community "Saurashtra" who were silk weavers patronised by kings of yore. His ancestors are said to have migrated from the western part of India to Tamil Nadu in the south several centuries ago. Born to a father who served in the lower ranks of the Indian Central Government and a mother who was less educated, he was brought up by his grandmother, a very traditional woman, in the extended family. With his two younger brothers he was afforded English education from the beginning that enabled him to become fluent in the language right from his childhood. Graduating in Agriculture from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore in 1982, he secured the prestigious position of Probationary Officer in State Bank of India, the premier bank in India. After a dedicated service of over two decades, he ventured out on his own to learn about real life outside the cocoon of privileged living that his parents and his job had offered him till then. Growing up in the country as India underwent its pangs of Westernisation, he was able to synthesise the self-oriented Western perspective with the community oriented native one to arrive at a wholesome concept of self after considerable efforts and experimentation. This book is the culmination of decades of efforts in discovering his real place in the world. Married to Vijayashree with a daughter Meenalochani, who has gifted him with a lovely granddaughter, he lives in the Southern Indian cities of Bangalore and Coimbatore with his family and his aged aunt.

You are a good person. You are one of the 84 million Americans who volunteer with a charity. You are part of a national donor pool that contributes nearly $200 billion to good causes every year. But you wonder: Why don't your efforts seem to make a difference? Fifteen years ago, Robert Egger asked himself this same question as he reluctantly climbed aboard a food service truck for a night of volunteering to help serve meals to the homeless. He wondered why there were still people waiting in line for soup in this day and age. Where were the drug counselors, the job trainers, and the support team to help these men and women get off the streets? Why were volunteers buying supplies from grocery stores when restaurants were throwing away unused fresh food every night? Why had politicians, citizens, and local businesses allowed charity to become an end in itself? Why wasn't there an efficient way to solve the problem? Robert knew there had to be a better way. In 1989, he started the D.C. Central Kitchen by collecting unused food from local restaurants, caterers, and hotels and bringing it back to a central location where hot, nutritious meals were prepared and distributed to agencies around the city. Since then, the D.C. Central Kitchen has been named one of President Bush Sr.'s Thousand Points of Light and has become one of the most respected and emulated nonprofit agencies in the world, producing and distributing more than 4,000 meals a day. Its highly successful 12-week job-training program equips former homeless transients and drug addicts with culinary and life skills to gain employment in the restaurant business. In Begging for Change, Robert Egger looks back on his experience and exposes the startling lack of logic, waste, and ineffectiveness he has encountered during his years in the nonprofit sector, and calls for reform of this $800 billion industry from the inside out. In his entertaining and inimitable way, he weaves stories from his days in music, when he encountered legends such as Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, and Iggy Pop, together with stories from his experiences in the hunger movement -- and recently as volunteer interim director to help clean up the beleaguered United Way National Capital Area. He asks for nonprofits to be more innovative and results-driven, for corporate and nonprofit leaders to be more focused and responsible, and for citizens who contribute their time and money to be smarter and more demanding of nonprofits and what they provide in return. Robert's appeal to common sense will resonate with readers who are tired of hearing the same nonprofit fund-raising appeals and pity-based messages. Instead of asking the "who" and "what" of giving, he leads the way in asking the "how" and "why" in order to move beyond our 19th-century concept of charity, and usher in a 21st-century model of change and reform for nonprofits. Enlightening and provocative, engaging and moving, this book is essential reading for nonprofit managers, corporate leaders, and, most of all, any citizen who has ever cared enough to give of themselves to a worthy cause.

NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • “A stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships” (People) from the author of Conversations with Friends, “a master of the literary page-turner” (J. Courtney Sullivan). “[A] novel that demands to be read compulsively, in one sitting.”—The Washington Post ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY’S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: People, Slate, The New York Public Library, Harvard Crimson Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation—awkward but electrifying—something life changing begins. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other. Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship, and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t. WINNER: The British Book Award, The Costa Book Award, The An Post Irish Novel of the Year, Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vox, The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country