Hey guys-
So, I already wrote Whatever Wednesday. Sometimes I do it in advance, like I do my other posts, because sometimes if I wait till Wednesday, I can't think of a thing to write.
This Wednesday was going to be a vent... It was a somewhat trying weekend where I basically felt like my friends didn't respect my time. The fact of the matter is, a lot of them don't. I get blown off a lot, and it's irritating and annoying, but I just couldn't write about that this week.
I was at the gym the other day and I was irritated because when I got there, I realized my MP3 player was dead, and my phone was dying. I settled in for what I knew would be a boring workout with no distractions to keep my mind off the time. I turned on the TV, which I rarely watch at the gym, and coverage of Chile was on.
They flashed to siblings, one little boy, two older-ish girls (still children though) who were sobbing. They had subtitles on, but the pain was evident in their voice, along with one word: Papa. They were looking for their father, and begging people to help them look for him.
I started crying at the gym. Many emotions flashed through me... For one, I was pissed, bad things shouldn't happen to good people, and bad things definately shouldn't happen to children. Then I was also angry... Why were the video cameras just standing there? Put them down, go help them find their Daddy! I know it's impractical... I knew there are rules to follow and things are still dangerous there, but still... I couldn't help but think of Cayden, and picture him as that poor little boy, who had to have been terrified, just wanting to find his Dad. I wanted to get off my bike and go right then, help find people's Daddy's and Mom's and Aunt's and Uncle's and cousins and sisters and brothers and friends...
Then it seems, reading messages where people ask for donations, there are those few people who pop up: "Why should we help others? People in our own country need help first."
Yes. There are people in our country who need help too. But I don't get this us-or-them mentality. In the end, we are all people, and we should be helping each other out. The fact of the matter is, if we ALL took time and helped out as much as we could... Well, I just highly doubt anyone would be in need anymore. I just think it's ridiculous that at this point in time, all people don't have their basic needs met, no matter their nationality.
Anyway... I just couldn't complain about something so petty as my friends snubbing me when their are children out there who don't know where their Daddy is. A couple of people have posted where you can donate in the comments section, and I highly urge you to donate. Again, I know money is tight, but five and ten dollars can go a long long way, and I'm sure you could scrounge up ten bucks.
At least that story had a happy ending though. We were at the gym last night, and my husband pointed up to the TVs on the wall. He meant to show me some goofy music video they were showing, where Michael Jackson was in this skin tight sequined body suit, but I thought he was pointing out the other TV, which was showing those kids again. I was horrified, I just couldn't watch again, but like any trainwreck, I couldn't take my eyes away from it. Luckily, they flashed to the kids, with their Dad. He had been trying to find them, he was alive, and they were back together again. I hope we can all donate so that maybe more families can have a happy ending.
On a lighter note, I thought I'd update you guys on the weight loss dealio. I've been pretty much losing at least 2 lbs a week since I started (in the beginning, I was losing a lot more, like 10 lbs and 6 lbs, but now I'm usually around 2 lbs), and I am now down 27 lbs. I'm feeling pretty good. I know a couple of you had talked about trying to lose weight, how are you guys doing?
Breaking the Surface
9 years ago
7 comments:
I gotta say I love that you use the forums provided to you to encourage worthwhile donations. The Red Cross has a program where you can donate as little as $15.00 a month and it will be automaticly deducted from your account so that it don't have to even think about it.
Kat
I hear you on people complaining about helping in other countries instead of in your home country, It is so typical for people to do this. I am in the US, I have had a mission trip to Haiti planned for months and the earthquake pushed us back but has us even more fired up about our cause. We are going into the mountains to help a village with needs, like clean water to drink and shelter and learning about diseases. I get talked down to ALL THE TIME. It bothers me. We are all 100% human and every human deserves a chance. Especially in Haiti, the people who have a job are worse off then the homeless here in the US. I can't understand why people think one nationality is more deserving then any other. it is about helping people, no matter why you do it, but to reach out and just do it. But I am glad other people feel this way too.
So many disasters lately. It's very scary. I wish I had that prophecy my dad showed me when the year 2000 was coming in. It was from a french profit or whatever. Anyhoo it talked not of the end of the world, but the change of the world. Naturally disasters would increase changing continents and land formations and eventually things would settle down to peace on Earth. I saw somewhere that this earthquake in Chili shifted the Earth's axis it was so strong. I do think we are in for some changes, although it will probably take years to notice. So on to weight loss. I recently joined curves, I love it. But I have been gaining weight (and I'm a naturally skinny person) and no Idea why. i watch what I eat and work out. I've had bloodwork, nothing seems to be wrong. Thats why I joined curves so I have some monitering. Contrats to you Laura on your weight loss.
Hey Laura,
I started trying to lose weight myself in January. I'm down nine pounds so far, and really need to just amp up the workouts so I can lose the next 11 (or more). I only need to lose 20 to get back to my "fighting" weight, but if I lose more and get closer to my college weight I won't complain. Congrats on losing 27 pounds though, "weigh" to go. :-)
D
Oh, I also wanted to comment on the donation issue. I am always amazed that people are so selfish and mean about helping others. I also read comments about why don't we help people here, as opposed to (pick a country)...
After the Chilean earthquake, I also read comments people made like "how come nobody is helping Chile like they wanted to help Haiti, how come we don't hear about that". So now it's not just us against the Haitians, but it's helping the Haitians vs the CHileans. I lost my job last year and I still donated to help Haiti.
How do these people sleep at night with so little conscience and so much hatred?
D
Around this time last year my uncle Justin was deployed to Afghanistan. He kept up with his family (wife+4 kids) and the rest of us with a blog, webcam iChat, and whatever else. Eventually, I guess he talked to my aunt about what crappy living conditions they have over there. Kids who didn't have parents, or couldn't find them, and even the ones who did have a family still had nothing. Anyway, my aunt started working with the Afghan Children's Project and ended up getting TONS of boxes of stuff sent overseas to Justin. I mean, it was covered by her local news and all that. And this story has a point (other than the fact that my aunt and uncle are so awesome):
You have no idea how many people commented on their blogs and even the news website with stuff like "There's no need to be helping people over there." or "We should worry about people in our own country first." I mean, yeah, there were lots of positive comments, but there were more negative comments than I would have thought people would write. Sometimes people are just obnoxious. I definitely agree with Anon#2. Everybody deserves a chance and EVERYBODY deserves help. My two cents (:
(ps--if anyone wants to read my uncle's blog, here's the link. he doesn't write on it anymore, cause he's home now (yay!), but he's got some amazing stories. plus, you can see how unbelievably cute my cousins are :D
http://452days.blogspot.com/)
I'm so touched by all your comments. I know that my country's situation is exponentially better than Haiti's, and we're also an earthquaky country historically. Every 25 years there's a big ass earthquake. I was way to young to remember the '85 earthquake, and everyone who remembers says that this one was so much worse. We are a relatively powerful and resourceful country, by no means is Chile dirt poor third-world, so we have the means to help ourselves. But we are pretty banged up, and will be for a while so any help that can be sent our way is deeply thanked. But I'm going off on a tangent from what I wanted to say...
My point is, if you encounter (or if you are) people that say "Oh, we should help our own country, why should we help some other place?", confront them. Tell them, "Ok, what ARE you doing? Are you donating? Are you helping out in shelters, soup kitchens?" It's amazing how people can turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to other people's suffering and then have the balls to complain that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
I'm proud to say that the Red Cross and other support groups this week have had to turn down volunteers because they have more than enough, everyone wants to help. But I'm also ashamed of so many Chileans that aren't willing to donate resources, time, or money to help put our country back together. Unfortunately, there's people like that all over the world...
There is always a way to help and we shouldn't have to wait for a catastrophe to do so.
Laura, I love how you are ALWAYS looking for some way to help a cause, and bringing to attention to your readers what happened this Saturday in my country is something I'll be eternally grateful for.
I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers, your thoughts, your worries. And let's all try to help someone every day, with a gesture, a kind word, donating money or donating time to someone who needs it. And thank you for reading such a long post!
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