A few friends who’ve read my blog have commented in person or written to me about this post, saying things like “well, it’s damned sure YOU’re not Fred Rogers” or “Who has time to go fix everyone’s problems?”

Boy, do you think it’s possible to miss the point any more?

It isn’t that everyone should quit their jobs and start tending to everyone else’s needs. That wasn’t the spirit of the original post, and those of you who read it, and got it, know exactly what I mean.

For those who read it and didn’t get it, here’s the point. You don’t need to be Fred Rogers. You don’t need to be Mohandis Gandhi. All you need to do is open your damned eyes, and get off your halfmoons, and do something. How many times this week have you driven by a man or woman walking alone with a cart or bags of groceries? Certainly, within reason, you have to be careful, but would it kill you to lend a hand? Would it kill you to watch as that person shops, to maybe walk up to them, and ask if they might want to make a shopping trip once a week or so part of their usual routine, pick them up, drive them to the store, drop them off. When I was very young we had a lady we would pick up on Tuesdays to buy groceries, and take her to mass with us on Sundays. She never drove, never owned a car. When her husband died she had no way to church, stopped showing up. It would have been easy to let her walk four miles to buy groceries, and forget the 6 mile hike to mass. But she was as much a part of our routine as softball practice, until she died herself, many years later. That taught me a lesson; you FIND people who need help, and you help them. It taught me another lesson: Not all old people smell funny, and through benefit of experience alone, deserve respect and dignity. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where there is never anyone walking with groceries; if so, good for you! How about asking around at your church? How about watching at the supermarket?

We had neighbors here whose daughter is a talented artist, does a lot of work on the computer. Well, her computer crashed and all her artwork was on it. I had parts, time, I fixed it. I got it running again though it took many of my evenings to do so. I helped her to understand she still had a chance to recover her files using DOS, and helped her to do so. We got the computer functioning again and she still uses it to this day. Did it kill me? no. Did it help her? certainly. Did it teach her that there aren’t always price tags attached to kindness, and that people sometimes do things because it’s the right thing to do? I like to think so.

So when you pick up Mr Webley at his seedy old house and take him to the store, and your kids make funny faces at you, and even he grouses at you because life has beat him up so bad he’s like a sinking ship firing on it’s rescuers, just smile and keep it up.

It isn’t fatal, folks. Kindness and decency pays off, even if only in self satisfaction.