Helping Others

For Americans, Thanksgiving is in a day or so, which is a time for getting together with family and sitting around the table to eat a hearty meal and reflect to "give thanks". There are some families who spend the day around the tv screen watching football, but we won't focus on them. Either way families are getting together to celebrate and I want to remind people that there are some who either have no family or simply can't afford to prepare the celebratory meal. As a matter of fact there are people who can't afford to eat on a daily basis.

I have a friend who recently confided in me, who told me he was stealing foods from the store to get by. He has been out of work, and times are really hard. This really broke my heart and made me fear his safety because who wants a criminal wrap sheet for trying to get basic necessities to live? This person lives in a different state so I couldn't take them grocery shopping, instead I opted to spend $150 on wally world's website to send his family some food. I didn't tell him I was going to do this, it just showed up at his door one day.

Anyway, there are people all over who are struggling. Supposedly some of the worse affected are elderly people. It's just very sad to see these folks who often go forgotten and I want to encourage everyone to look around them and not to be shy to reach out and extend help. The holidays can be a very lonely sad time for people, please try to think of how you can make someone's season a little better. The smallest gesture can go a very long way.

 

A nice thought.

 

Thank you! Also, I'm new so I don't know how to respond to people on my wall who leave messages. Sorry for that.

 

You might want to give him info on getting food stamps or church/community pantry programs.

If this is a friend that you have only had contact with online, be careful. There's just always a potential for bullshit when you can't verify something.

Sounds like this is someone that you know irl though.

 

Thank you, yes you're right. He's someone I known for about 14 years. He lives in a very small town down south. He is a part of one of those programs but has a family of four, two are boys. They find it difficult to make ends meet even with assistance. God forbid the day those programs are removed because some people genuinely need them to get by during hard times like this.

 

Go to the profile of the user, and you can post messages there.

 

Is there a message box? I don't see it.

 

There should be a tab on the left 'visitor messages'.

 

I do see that however I don't see a box to type text or anything. Maybe its because I'm on a Mac and I didn't properly install java.....

 

I think java may be your problem, but I have never viewed this site on a mac.

You can also send private messages to members. If you click on the user name next to a post in any thread, you should see a menu from which to select.

 

Great post. Recently I saw someone on a "help people" community I was a part of, offer anyone to come to her house for dinner. I thought that was really nice. It made me want to have my own gathering so I could invite people who might really need something to eat, but I am going to a family gathering and I don't think my family is that generous, at all.

It really seems like the appropriate way to celebrate your own good fortune though, by helping those who are not so fortunate. I want to find some way to help, but it will have to be sometime after Thanksgiving.

 

Below their messages, their should be some text in blue that says "view conversation". If you click on that, it should bring you to a box where you can type a reply.

There could be other reasons why you can't reply, but that's the first thing to check out.

 

Ah ok thanks, yeah I'm a new member so maybe thats why I'm not able to reply. Or it could be the Java thing. I'm not Mac savvy so it may take me some time to figure it out.

 

Ya helping, and sharing is a really beautiful thing imo. It can be year round

 

Great topic. Every year my band plays a big food drive event in our home town. We've been playing that for well over a decade. I usually try to take a moment to thank the crowd and remind them that their actions really do matter. I tell them that while I'm at a good place in life, I grew up poor. I know what it's like to not have food and to be homeless. I know what it's like to depend on a food pantry. That's why we donate our time as a band. That's why my company helps support the event financially. It's not just some vague, far-off problem you're helping with. It's people who may live right down the street from you. It's people in your community. It may even be family members of yours who are too proud to admit it. It does matter! Food pantries are a cause near and dear to my heart.

 

it should be year round..not sure why the thanks and giving only come one time a year..seems people need to be prompted to do things

 

This reminds me of a story...nothing to do with feeding people but it was one of my most memorable Thanksgivings....by accident.

About ten years ago, we were planning on having our family gathering on the weekend following Thanksgiving so my wife and I were just hanging out at home that Thursday. As I've mentioned before, I'm an arborist and utility line clearance contractor. That day, my business line rang and I thought it was odd that someone would call on a holiday but whatever...I answered it. The caller was from out of state but his 80 or so yr old mother lived in my home town by herself. Evidently, a huge section of a tree fell through her garage roof and he wanted to know if I could send a crew asap after the holiday weekend because she was a wreck over it. I told him I'd go look at it after we got off the phone. He was like "On Thanksgiving?" Yeah...whatever, man. I'm just sitting around anyway. So I went to her house and she was indeed elderly and very upset. I told her to just relax. I left and got some gear (I wasn't calling in any of my guys) and returned to remove the tree. I spent most of the afternoon getting the debris removed and cleaned up. She happened to have some materials in the garage so I was able to repair the roof as best as I could. She was very happy that the work was done but told me she had no money to pay me and that I'd have to bill her son. She was worried about what the bill would be and then on a holiday on top of that. I told her if she didn't have the money to pay me then she simply didn't owe me anything and neither did her son (It's not like I had shit better to do anyway). I just asked them to "pay it forward" some time. Her reaction was more than enough payment for me. You might think that she should be thankful for my actions on that day but in the end, I was thankful for the chance to help her. I was thankful that by chance, her son called me instead of someone who would have screwed them over. We don't need to make money off of everything we do. Sometimes being able to show compassion and be a human is the payment. It makes me smile even as I type this. I'm thankful to have had the chance to do that.

 

Awesome story Wizardofodd

 

Yes! Great post! Although sometimes it's easy for me to get temporarily caught up in how my family has struggled financially this year... and how we would love to own a home instead of renting and many other things are not perfect and some far from it... I have been, regardless, teaching my almost 3 year old about the spirit of being thankful and that that is what thanksgiving is about. I told him that I am thankful for him, his daddy, our home (that we rent,but we have a loving household and a nice, neat, organized, warm roof over our heads!), our cat, our food, etc... he responded that he is thankful for his daddy, mommy, grandma and nana and his house and cat.. in any case, I am feeling thankful this year... I don't have much financial support to give anyone yet this year because I believe we have to take ourselves out of debt first and provide the basics but that is being worked on and seems there is light coming now from the tunnel. So, I am trying to pass the torch of gratitude on to my child... Also, I have been doing other small things, like forgiving people and trying to be understanding and drop small issues before they become large...because you never know how much the small things may count. I hope to actually order for my mom and my mother in law for xmas a couple goats and chickens or ducks for a few families in Africa...(you pay to buy them and they send a card to the gift member saying it was purchased in their name...)... you can also buy things like water purification systems, soccer balls, books, mosquito nets, seeds, etc, etc., etc (there is a lot)... (I have the info on this non profit if anyone wants it)...in any case, just trying to spread my gratitude and the small amount, monitary and otherwise, that I can give the world the best I can.
Everyone should try to do the same. If everyone does a little...we accomplish a lot.