The Giving Keys believe that every word matters. Their pieces are adorned with powerful inscriptions like: strength, love, faith, believe, dream, hope, or power. And they also offer customizable inscriptions so that you can make each piece your own. The idea is that your key should have a word that you feel you need more of in your life: perhaps you need that extra reminder to create or to believe.
The key then serves as this word incarnate. It's a tactile reminder to incorporate more this message into your everyday. It becomes your mantra and away for you to grow, heal, and thrive. But the word isn't yours to keep forever. Once you've harnessed the essence of your key it's time to give it to someone new – hence "the giving keys".
The concept behind The Giving Keys is that once you've incorporated your word into your life, you'll eventually cross paths with someone who needs that same word in their life. When you feel the time is right, you pass your key on giving this perfect stranger, or long time friend, a little extra strength, love, hope or faith.
Each key helps spread positivity, inspiration and hope as it travels.
The founder of the company, Caitlin Crosby, came up with the concept for The Giving Keys after wearing a hotel key around her neck so she wouldn't lose it. When she checked out of the hotel she began to miss the statement piece and had a key engraved, and another and another. Caitlin began selling the keys and they were a hit. People who had lost their job or a loved one gravitated towards them. They were the perfect remind for others battling with their health or those that seemed lost in their way. She couldn't keep up with the demand and she felt so inspired by all the people who's lives she was touching.
Then one day she saw a houseless couple on the street and invited them both to dinner with her. Eager to hear their story, it just so serendipitously happened that the woman she was at dinner with was a former jewelry designer. They teamed up and The Giving Keys was born.
Since that point the company's created over 130 jobs for people transitioning out of houselessness. It's just another way that these necklaces offer new beginnings.
Check out their site and read some real-life stories of giving keys posted by actual customers, just like you. And remember: pay it forward.
Upworthy has earned revenue through a partnership and/or may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through links on our site.
Men try to read the most disturbing comments women get online back to them.
If you wouldn't say it to their faces, don't type it.
This article originally appeared on 04.27.16
Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence.
A recent video by Just Not Sports took two prominent female sportswriters and had regular guys* read the awful abuse they receive online aloud.
Sportswriters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro sat by as men read some of the most vile tweets they receive on a daily basis. See how long you can last watching it.
*(Note: The men reading them did not write these comments; they're just being helpful volunteers to prove a point.)
#MoreThanMean - Women in Sports 'Face' Harassmentwww.youtube.com
It starts out kind of jokey but eventually devolves into messages like this:
These types of messages come in response to one thing: The women were doing their jobs.
Those wishes that DiCaro would die by hockey stick and get raped? Those were the result of her simply reporting on the National Hockey League's most disturbing ordeal: the Patrick Kane rape case, in which one of the league's top players was accused of rape.
DiCaro wasn't writing opinion pieces. She was simply reporting things like what the police said, statements from lawyers, and just general everyday work reporters do. In response, she received a deluge of death threats. Her male colleagues didn't receive nearly the same amount of abuse.
It got to the point where she and her employer thought it best to stay home for a day or two for her own physical safety.
The men in the video seemed absolutely shocked that real live human beings would attack someone simply for doing their jobs.
Most found themselves speechless or, at very least, struggling to read the words being presented.
Think this is all just anecdotal? There's evidence to the contrary.
The Guardian did a study to find out how bad this problem really is.
They did a study of over 70 million comments that have been posted on their site since 2006. They counted how many comments that violated their comment policy were blocked.
The stats were staggering.
From their comprehensive and disturbing article:
So what can people do about this kind of harassment once they know it exists?
There are no easy answers. But the more people who know this behavior exists, the more people there will be to tell others it's not OK to talk to anyone like that.