Since returning from our two year hiatus in the Mediterranean, I have developed a habit. I’ve started to regularly read Time and a People magazine. Time is understandable as a quasi intellectual periodical, but Mike inevitably makes some crack about People magazine, like, “Geez, that rag? You might as well read The Inquirer or something. You don’t actually care about celebrities, do you?” It’s not so much that I care, as I find it interesting. Like passing a wreck on the highway. Or maybe as a diversion: like after a busy day when I hook my brain up intravenously to a sitcom on television. Ah, sweet nectar.
In order to avoid Mike’s verbal abuse, I used to hide the magazine and read it when he wasn’t around, a sort of guilty pleasure, but now I figure we’re over 20 years into this marriage and if he can’t accept my need for the occasional mind coast then there’s a couch, or in our case a dinghy, with his name on it. Besides, in defense of People, they do have a good book review section and I mainly buy it to keep up on the biz. Suuure I do.
Lately, most magazines articles have centered on the disaster in Haiti, and rightly so. But now those articles have slowed to a trickle in favor of the Olympics. The world moves on. I think we can only take so many pictures of mangled bodies and the living in tatters, arms outstretched. Sometimes I feel like the media exploits situations like Haiti, sensationalizing such conditions, in order to hold my attention and sell further copies. They succeed on both accounts.
I did read one terrific article today by Nancy Gibbs, editor at large of Time exploring what it means to give in a global community. (here) She suggests that despite good intentions, our giving does not always meet our own needs or those of the suffering. Folks in desperation, open a box of panty hose, cocktail dresses, or Viagra, when what they really need is rice, water, and amoxicillin. She questions throwing money at disasters but admits that money is “fleet and nimble” and in the hands of the “professionals” a fair bit can be accomplished. I very much appreciated her ending with the idea that help can begin with one person.
In a world where I am bombarded with an overwhelming amount of terror, I am so grateful for the odd article revealing “good news.” While I do appreciate the efforts of celebrities like Oprah and Brangelina, what I am really interested in, when all the hype has dwindled and some new catastrophe with fresh horror becomes the next top story, is the people who give to those in need on a regular basis right here in our own communities. Who have made charity a part of their normal lives in some small form or another.
This past week, I was walking Skipper down the street near the marina and my neighbor stopped her car and rolled down her window to chat with me. We talked about the usual stuff, business, kids, and the weather since temperatures here in Florida had been hovering in the mind numbing 50’s. When I asked where she was headed, she got a little sheepish before saying, “Well, actually, I have seen this one homeless woman down at the bus stop for the past few nights in a row and since it’s been so cold lately, I thought I’d bring her some soup.”
I figure that large disasters will always be around somewhere in the world and as a global community we do need to rally our support. But in the meantime, I’m glad for people like my neighbor, who go about changing the world in small but persistent dosages.
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