I started this annual charity campaign in my niece Sofia's honor for a great many reasons; not the least of which is that providing the world's underserved populations with clean drinking water access is a noble and important cause. Clean water for cooking and drinking is essential, effective, and empowering, and strikes me as the most basic necessity and bottom line human right which we must make universal in this abundant world where so many have so much.

But just as importantly as what is being received is the act of giving itself.

We live in a world where selfish values are promoted far more often than selfless ones; where the basic message we are teaching our children, each other, and ourselves - so far as I can discern it - is: "Take what you can, when you can. More is better." And so with this campaign I want to teach Sofia the supreme joy of giving; which in my experience is far greater, far more satisfying, and far truer than the fleeting happiness of receiving.

What we acquire can never be more than a temporary salve, and only leads to more suffering when we lose the object of our desire, or it loses its hold over us and a hollow new desire inevitably takes its place. But when we give of ourselves in thought or deed, in money or action, in open-hearted service, we find a joy that is pure and true. We come to know better the peace which is everlasting, the love which unites rather than divides, and which offers us our only chance at real and lasting happiness.

I started this charity campaign so that each of us could choose, in this small way, to show Sofia what it means to open ourselves in generosity rather than recoil in selfishness; to create a world motivated more by love than by greed. For in this - and this alone - lies our salvation.

I believe this to be one of the profoundest lessons and deepest truths for us all; for me, for you, for Sofia; for the 7 billion people who currently have access to clean drinking water, and the 700 million who currently do not.

Happy (belated) Birthday Sofia!
You are a beautiful soul!

With love,
Uncle Brian