The Generosity Crisis

CHAPTER 9Creating Radical Connection with Emerging Tech

Irving Kaplan met the love of his life while puking his guts out. The year was 1952. For weeks, his friend Marty had begged him to come to a community dance to be put on by City of Hope in Los Angeles.

“It'll be great,” said Marty. “Good food. Great music. Pretty women.”

Irving liked the sound of that. He was 22 and single, and he envisioned the lively soirée as a chance to show off dance moves he learned back in cotillion. The day before, he spent his paycheck on a new suit and tie, convinced he would turn heads on the big night. As for the charity itself? Irving had heard something about how the funds raised from the evening went to help sick people suffering from tuberculosis. That was good, too.

Only things didn't pan out like Irving expected. The afternoon of the big night he started feeling queasy. He attributed it to nerves, passing on the porkchops served to the 300 assembled in the hotel ballroom.

“Aren't you gonna eat?” Marty asked between bites.

“Nah.”

Instead, Irving scanned the room, making mental notes of which lovely lady to approach just as soon as they cleared the tables. But then his body betrayed him. He felt bile in the back of his throat. Seconds later, he rushed out, heading for the bathroom. He didn't make it. Irving threw up the contents of his stomach on the plush hallway carpet. Must be food poisoning, he thought to himself.

He felt the hand on his neck before he ever heard her sweet voice.