Secret Millionaire

I don't watch much television. Most of the time I simply have the television on the in the background as I am doing something else (like writing this blog); there are very few shows I follow, and even fewer which I make a point of watching on Hulu if I have missed an episode.

Since I write most week-end posts about something inspirational, the fact that I am writing today's post about the TV show Secret Millionaire is in and of itself a testament to how fascinating and inspiring this show is to me. The premise is that someone wealthy (sometimes a family) spends a week living on welfare wages without revealing their true identity, and at the end of the week they must give away at least $100,000 of their own money to people they have met during the week. In the two episodes I have watched, the millionaires have given away MORE than $100,000 and they have had epiphanies about their own judgments and lifestyles.

The show is a financial version of the Beauty and the Geek series, or the 30 Days series, where people from completely different circumstances learn from each other and help each other understand a foreign perspective. My friend Gloria suggested that perhaps we should have all politicians go through this kind of experience so that they know how their constituents live with the decisions they make; maybe someone could create the show Regular Citizen.

Consciousness can be an expansive experience, and in this case, the more the better.