Helping Out

There are things I simply can't do now. I can't kneel down, if I do I can't get up again. Even bending down to pick things up from the floor isn't easy. It's all part of wearing out, of ageing. So I sometimes have to ask for help. Mostly I pay for it. I'm very lucky that I can. Currently one of the small, but irritating things I can't do is replace the battery in the christmas lights on my front door wreath. I just can't open the box the batteries are in. Fortunately at some point one of the family will come & do it. Again, I'm very lucky to have family nearby.

We all need help of one sort or another at some point. The corollary to that is that we can all help others too. Human decency means that we should be able to ask for help & give it. 

Examples of the decency & willingness to help of many people are always there. Unfortunately it doesn't necessarily get as much publicity as the opposing tendency to ignore people who need help. To be isolationist & self centred. Me first, my family first, even my country first. 

 

Christmas is a time when charities ask for donations, hoping that the christmas spirit will encourage us to give a little of the money we spend on the festivities to others who aren't so lucky. But helping out isn't simply a question of donating cash, useful though that is. Often practical help is much better. A truly visible sign that you do care. Giving cash is relatively easy. Personal involvement demands more. 

One of the best volunteering things I have done was to help an organisation prepare the food for a free mass Christmas lunch in Oxford. They fed hundreds of people who would probably otherwise not have turkey & all the trimmings. Prepping huge amounts of veg that had been donated with a crowd of other volunteers was really uplifting. To me it said far more about the real meaning of Christmas than anything I had ever done at this time of year. 

Yes we should enjoy Christmas with friends & family. Simply sharing a meal & enjoying eachothers company is wonderful. But to my mind our way of celebrating Christmas, & also weddings today, has got completly out of hand. We are losing sight of the meaning of events like this. They have become a feast of over indulgence & spending.

The huge gap between the haves & the have nots is becoming unacceptable. Studies are showing that there is a shift in attitude. Pople are questioning how they celebrate in the context of circumstances both here in the UK & worldwide. I'm not alone in being a paid up member of the Bah Humbug club.