tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post113949486450841320..comments2023-10-11T10:40:48.712-04:00Comments on The Miserable Annals of the Earth: Somebody else's problemDoc Nebulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1139627574809817412006-02-10T22:12:00.000-05:002006-02-10T22:12:00.000-05:00Excellent post, my love. Except for the part wher...Excellent post, my love. Except for the part where you were (unintentionally, I'll admit) heaping the guilt on me. <BR/><BR/>And I'm really digging on (and sadly relating entirely too much to) Nate's response as well. <BR/><BR/>I suppose I'm terribly guilty of not doing enough. I always have better intentions and do a few things. But not nearly enough. Certainly not as much as I could or should. <BR/><BR/>Thanks for the reminder (and the kick in the ass).SuperWifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02856384425069616224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1139557170311183232006-02-10T02:39:00.000-05:002006-02-10T02:39:00.000-05:00Oh, oh yeah. SEP? That's from Douglas Adams, the...Oh, oh yeah. SEP? That's from Douglas Adams, the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galazy series.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1139556776281509452006-02-10T02:32:00.000-05:002006-02-10T02:32:00.000-05:00Empathy. Social responsibility. Whatever you wan...Empathy. Social responsibility. Whatever you want to call it; what you're talking about (caring about other people's problems) is little more than an ideal that some pay lip service to these days.<BR/><BR/>I remember, vaguely, when I used to care. It was a long time ago, before I ran head-on into the bitter reality of the world, as a fresh-faced boy, with a head full of Christian idealism, and love for my fellow man.<BR/><BR/>Then I went to work, started paying taxes, read the newspaper, watched the news, listened to the gossip around the water cooler at work. I saw the other life of management, and the dichotomy of greed that infects every strata of American society. And slowly, like the bedrock of the great falls, my empathy began to erode.<BR/><BR/>I expect it was my empathy for the extremes of the human condition that went first. Billionaires that couldn't find joy, Africans starving en masse. What could I, a lone man with limited resources, possibly do to aid them? What effort could I put forth that would be more effective than railing against the tides?<BR/><BR/>Like dominoes, the first to fall started a chain reaction, slow at first, but building, ever building. Victims of war, female execs hitting a glass ceiling? Nothing I can do, I'm just one guy with no influence at all.<BR/><BR/>And then, the dominoes hit the tricky stuff, the ramps, the slides, the slippery slopes.<BR/><BR/>People with AIDS, double-taxed shareholders? Why should I care? I'll never get AIDS, and I'm too poor to buy stocks. And I went from rationalization, to justification. From helpless sympathy, to lack of empathy. On with the turning away.<BR/><BR/>The more problems you turn your eyes from, the easier it gets. The thing is, there's so many problems that are so painful to look at, that if you don't turn away, you lose the ability to function. How the hell would I get through the day, if I spent it worrying about everyone else on earth?<BR/><BR/>I know these problems exist, I know they're real, and I know, or at least I'm morally cvertain, that solutions exist. But I also know that nothing I can do will bring these solutions about. So, I've learned to pick my battles.<BR/><BR/>My dad died of a stroke, but it was diabetes that ruined the quality of his life long before that, so I looked around, and joined the Lions Club because they work to fight diabetes, and now I help run and fund a summer day camp for kids with Type I diabetes. It's not much, not even a finger in the dike (no jokes please), but it's what I can do. It's what I do to buy me the right to ignore the rest of it.<BR/><BR/>It's what lets me call all those other problems, somebody else's problems. I've stepped up and taken a whack at juvenile diabetes. I help educate children in how to take care of their condition. Someone else needs to step up and take a whack at some of the other stuff.<BR/><BR/>Somebody else needs to make it their problem.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com