The Hour on: Tooting Your Own Horn

To toot or blow one’s own horn means to brag about one’s own accomplishments. We can’t stand tooters. They are annoying, and no matter how great their accomplishments, we have to wonder if they only do something good so they can rub it in our faces. There is something to be said for the anonymous donor, the kindness of strangers, the virtue of the gift given without expectation of recognition or reward.

If tooting is so annoying, why does the Hour ask you to publish your good deeds? Isn’t that tooting your own horn? Why can’t you do something good and keep it as you own little secret, your own warm feeling? Here are a few thoughts:

Whose Horn is Being Tooted?

When we publish our good deeds on the Hour, it only asks for a first name or a city or state, and that information isn’t even required. No one can connect the accomplishment to the person who performed it. So publishing on the Hour is not so much tooting your own horn as it is tooting some anonymous horn, far less annoying and hopefully serving a purpose.

You are Not Alone

The purpose of the Hour is to create a community of people committed to improving things. We share our accomplishments to help each other and to know we are not alone. An idea posted by the Hour may resonate with me, but I might not be sure how to make it work. You share what you did and I read it and know what to do. I report; you read it and know you are not alone.

Inspiration

Finally, we share our accomplishments to inspire each other. When I hear about the greatness of others I want to be great. A family moves into a house and finds thousands of dollars in the garage. Legally the money is theirs, but they do the right thing and give it to the deceased previous owner’s son. A graduate student is busy in his first semester of a PhD program. He’s recently moved and struggles to care for his young family. When he learns he is a match for a patient in need of a bone marrow transplant there is no question—he donates. Two weeks before the end of the semester, when projects and papers are due, he flies to Denver and comes back a little faint and with aching hips. A woman in a store sees a young mother with an upset baby. Mom can’t put her groceries up on the counter without putting baby down. Baby doesn’t want to be put down. The woman without a word puts the young mother’s groceries on the counter. When I hear about how others have made things better, I want to do more and be better. I’m moved to action.

Toot Your Horn

Go ahead, toot an anonymous horn. Hopefully others will too, so you know you’re not alone. Maybe your combined tooting will inspire someone to do something great. Right now, there are three ideas up on the Action page. If you want something to toot about you could do all three in one afternoon. Give something up and take what you would have spent on it and donate it to a local organization that fights poverty. Print out and mail an Hour card with the check. Then you can report on all three of the ideas. The Hour will post your accomplishments and others will read about what you did and know that they are not the only ones trying to make things better. They will be inspired and hopefully, pass the inspiration on.

Take Action!