Lots of things happening in the world. Sometimes I feel guilty, minding my own life in the safe and sunny little pinpoint of land I inhabit. People are in a war or grieving over lost loved ones while I'm enjoying whatever show or movie I feel like watching. Yet, I'm here and they're there, and there's nothing I can do but pray for them. The only thing to feel guilty about is if I'm seriously wasting my time and blessings, or if I don't care what happens to others.
Charity is something that can be wrongly motivated by guilt. I love to give to an organization like Compassion International, where I know kids are getting the help they need. I've given for disaster relief too, and sometimes I think part of it was to "pay off" that feeling of guilt at being in a better position than the victims. Not that I didn't care--and still do--for them, but I can't deny that at least a small part of it was to ease my mind, so I could get back to whatever pleasant thing I wanted to do.
Just a thought after reading some news headlines. News can be depressing, but we ought not to be depressed by it. We should be sober. With a healthy dollop of happiness.
i am curious, what do stoves have to do with printing?
ReplyDeleteit is really easy to start to feel bad about terrible things happening all over the place, news can be very depressing. sometimes i have to ban myself from reading any sort of news for a while because it's so easy to become entrenched in the sorrows of others. dollops of happiness spread around surely are a good thing.
you make a good point about charitable contributions being at least partly done to make oneself feel better..that's probably the case with a lot of donations, but not everyone cares enough to recognize that fact.
My [former] boss owns a rental house next to his own, and the stove there had been losing power to the burners. So he ordered a new one from Sears, and had Brian (my former fellow employee) and I pick it up and take it to the rental house, where we made the switch. Brian got to keep the old stove to sell at a scrapyard. :D
ReplyDeleteahaaa. i was totally trying to fit a stove in the printing process somewhere. haha
ReplyDelete