It is a rare individual who can resist the allure of consumerism. One family tried to put a stop to the uphill battle of achieving the American Dream and wrote a book about their experience. The Power of Half, written by Kevin Salwen and his fourteen year old daughter, Hannah, describes the journey from deciding to sell their 6500 square foot home to buying one half its size and donating the difference to charity.
Up until this experience, the Salwen family had been a pretty typical busy upper middle class family. Kevin and his wife, Joan, were two highly educated career focused parents raising two children who attended private schools, played sports and video games and listened to their ipods. Although the Salwen family participated in projects like Habitat for Humanity and Meals on Wheels, it was Hannah who jump started the family into making an even bigger difference. Sitting at an intersection, she noticed a familiar homeless man. “As she looked at the homeless man,” Salwen writes, “a sight she had seen dozens of times before, on this day his situation registered more deeply. That’s because when she looked in the other direction, she spotted another man driving a black Mercedes coupe.” She realized then, that if the man driving the Mercedes would accept half as much, the homeless man could have twice as much.
After much family discussion, they put their home on the market and moved into a smaller one in the same neighborhood. Their home did not sell quickly, but they remained focused and continued to dedicate a great deal of time, thought, energy, and money to this endeavor. They decided to donate the proceeds of the eventual sale of their house to The Hunger Project, an organization committed to “empowering women and men to end their own hunger”. In the end they traveled to Ghana where they were able to witness first hand the change they set out to make. The roughly $800,000 donation from the sale of their home went to fund the building of two epicenters which now support up to a dozen nearby villages.
The book is easy to read, well written, respectful and follows a linear story line. I enjoyed the breaks in between chapters which were devoted to “Hannah’s Take” on the experience. I found myself wishing there were more anecdotes, but as a general overview of their experience as a family I found it a worthy read. On the flip side, it’s discomforting to see shallowness in the heart of good intentions, but I couldn’t help but wonder about the reasons they wrote this book. I really hope it is to influence others for the benefit of those in need, but I have to say there were instances when the self back-patting seemed so obvious that I found myself doubting their sincerity. In my opinion, there is no difference between, “look at all the good things we’ve done” and “look at how enormous our house is”. If I ignore these doubts, which I probably should, then the book has a healthy message of giving to those less fortunate and of recognizing how much we have and how much we can do without.
The Power of Half is not suggesting that we all sell our homes and give up half of our income to the needy, but it is reminding us that to live simply is to live beautifully. Satisfaction and fulfillment come not from instant gratification and excitement but from a place of peace and love. The Salwen family embarked on a journey that created a stronger sense of community within their family and believe that everyone has the power to make a difference however big or small. There is true power in that. A power that, albeit slowly, doubles, then triples, and so on and so forth…
Visit the book's website: www.thepowerofhalf.com
About the Authors:
Kevin Salwen was a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal for more
than eighteen years. He serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity and works
with the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Hannah Salwen is a senior at the Atlanta Girls' School. She has been
volunteering consistently since the fifth grade.
