I watched a video yesterday that really shook me up. It had to do with Salma Hayek visiting Sierra Leone, where “one in five children die before reaching their fifth birthday and tetanus is a big contributor.” A baby happened to take its last breath, just as Salma was stroking her beautiful little face.
I don’t have words to express the depths of how this makes me feel. To see life just disappear like that. It’s not like all the flashy mayhem we see on TV. All that Hollywood stuff. It’s serious. It’s real. It’s heart wrenching. It’s heart numbing.
There is bloodshed the world over. People fighting wars. People caught up in wars, whether they want it or not. Again, serious, real, heart wrenching, heart numbing.
But children dying. Children. I didn’t want to see a child die.
I don’t know how to think or what to think. I hold my own children close and breathe deeply their warm, living scent. My comfortable home seems criminal in comparison to the standards in which those struggling people live.
It’s all relative, though, isn’t it? A rich man might shake his head and think, poor miserable soul, to see the conditions in which I live. Even so. It makes me think about what can be done for the greater good. Obviously there’s too much for any one person to tackle. I could donate all the money I have, and it would hardly be a drop in the bucket. I could donate some of the money I have, and it will still be only a drop. How much can I do? How much should I do? What difference can I make? Since our immediate needs are met, should we then turn any excess over to those more in need? Or use some to work toward our own hopes and dreams, and set some aside in case of our own rainy days? I don’t have a complete answer to this, but prudence tells me that I should have a safety net, because that will prevent me and mine from becoming a burden to the public system, especially in these trying times. That much I should do. And what of the rest, of those less fortunate than me?
I like the pay it forward concept. If everyone did something, any thing, to help someone, any one, then good happens. We can all change lives for the better, one thing at a time.
I’ve been thinking of sponsoring some children in an under-developed nation. There are always infomercials on about that sort of opportunity. I would like for my children to give of their bounty to others less fortunate. I think it will be good for them to learn to share and help others in need. Now, to find an agency that’s legit.
