SSA Blog #007     By Michelle Drew     November 8, 2005

What a fabulous feeling to see how well our blogs are working. We have had a tremendous response from our readers, and we are grateful for that. And while we're at it, thank you to all who sent along birthday wishes to me. It meant quite a lot. The kindness of our community never fails to

First off, we received this short note:

Michelle -

Excuse my Ignorance but what is a blog???????????

Dr. O

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Dear Dr. O;

Thanks for asking. Blogging has come into being a few years ago and  is a new way of communicating. Some people just write their thoughts, others use a web cam to add some interest. For us, we have adopted this format because of the many different things we want to communicate. Our blog has editorials, quotes, poems, pictures written by myself or contributed by our readers. Since our group is global, we have gotten some very interesting things.  Hopefully, as we mix things up, there will be some things interesting to everyone.  We have tons of material to share and  it looks like we have the right format now.

The blog also allows us to use color and pictures and other effects that make very large and expensive emails to send out. This format is putting us in the black for the first time in over 6 years.  And it is allowing us to use yahoo only sporadically. Hopefully that will cut down on the spam and junk that yahoo uses its members list for.  So if you have any new ideas for his blog, send it along. We are now our own bosses!!!

Michelle

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Today's All Good Thoughts come courtesy of SueBee, our South African correspondent.....

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite
beauty if only we have eyes to see them ..."
John Ruskin (1819-1900)

"If you want to be happy, be."
Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)

"We need time to dream, time to remember, and time to reach the infinite.  Time to be."
Gladys Taber (1899 - 1980)

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Advice Question

Hi Michelle;

I just came back from a volunteer work giving free meals to the less
fortunate in a worn downtown location. Although I think it's a very
thoughtful gesture to give to the poor, the whole scenario made me
re-think how life should be lived.

First of all, I personally did not believe nor support giving 'free
meals', simply because it teaches people that they can get something
for nothing. But out of my good intentions, i helped anyway. As time
passed, the people that swarmed from the street also became
increasingly violent and almost 'demanded' that they be fed. I
believe that we can do some to alleviate their pain but free food is
NOT a right but a privilege. It almost seemed that we encouraged
this behavior to accrue in society. After that i vowed never to
support freebies not unless in very exceptional cases.

There was also something within me that irked my soul. I have always
questioned: "If we are all God's offspring (meaning children of God),
why CAN'T we treat each other as family?"

Now i know it would be foolish to let someone down the street into
your own home or give all your possessions to the poor and live an
ascetic life (as Jesus or Buddha or Allah did), but what if you knew
the woman down the street was your mother? or brother? or son? or 2
year old baby? Wouldn't that change the entire scenario that you
knew that this was your biological brother?

Now i know that life works out that if we each take care of our own
skin (first) then our family, we would survive. I mean 'our family'.
But why doesn't anybody realize that the whole world is ONE BIG
FAMILY? I know it wouldn't work out since you can't save the world
but why do we treat other people outside our home as 'somebody else'?

How do we work out this so-called oxymoron?

zleepy

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Dear Zleepy;

There are many answers to your questions. Let's start with the obvious: There are people who care and work tirelessly to help others. In the most dangerous ghettos in the US, there are many quiet heroes who serve meals, read to the elderly, take in foster children, and offer free counseling , legal and medical services. They don't seem to attract media attention, except perhaps around Christmas as a feel-good human interest story. My work has put me in touch with many people like that. These people live courageously and give the most they can. If you are looking for silent heroes, you can find them, just not on tv.

As for the people who are not minding their manners when free food is presented, let me say, that there are also many people like that. Why? Because poverty and hunger do not bring out the best in people. People in survival mode need to be aggressive to survive. They take what they can, because they have no idea where their next meal is coming from. If you need to understand that better, you might want to take a week off, sleep outside and beg for your food. It is a terrible life to live.

So why do people choose to live like that? In my opinion, most of the street people have psychiatric illnesses that prevent them from functioning in society. Starting in about 1980, the federal government began to close down the mental hospitals that had housed the sickest of the sick. As the hospitals closed, the homeless population grew. There are so few resources available for the mentally ill now, that for many, there is no choice. You have stated that,"free food is NOT a right but a privilege." Let me just respond by saying that being able to eat is not a priviledge in any civilized society.

I think that each person needs to make the decision for her/himself about what kind of person you want to be. If you want to help, help. Yes, most mainstream religions do encourage us to care for our sick and helpless. The problem is not our there. It is in each of us.

Thank you for your important question. I hope you find your place. Reach out to those in need. It is the right thing to do.

Michelle