Doing something

I know I'm not the only person who's been feeling helpless/hopeless.
This is not a good time for a lot of people.

I probably don't need to tell you that since you are (probably) a people, too.

Although I don't know, perhaps green and scaly monsters from Venus read my blog. Raise your hand if you're a monster?

Yeah, I see you. I had wondered but didn't feel comfortable commenting.
Go ahead and put your hand down.

Anyone else?

Oh. I thought so.

Okay. So things are really tough right now for a lot of us.

People are having trouble feeding their families.
Paying the rent or the mortgage.

When it comes to extras, like a bicycle for a growing child, or a birthday present for a little guy, people just don't have it. They're lucky if they've had three meals today, the power is still on and they have clean clothes.

So now let's add current events.
Not the plague, which is what put quite a few of us into the perpetual too much month at the end of the money, but politics.

I have seen a lot of ugliness in elections. Ever since I was old enough to vote I've paid attention to what's going on.

The lies and the ugliness and the complete moral bankruptcy of our "representatives' just make me ill.

But I've never seen anything as bad as this year's campaign.
Lying assholes, using adversity to score points against their opponent, unable to recall facts or speak coherently for any length of time, willing to say or do anything at all to hold that big stick.

And that goes for both sides.
None of them are worth a shit.

Do I hate some of them more than others?
Yep, sure do.

My feelings about them and their fitness for the positions with which they've been entrusted aren't very charitable, I'm afraid.

You've heard it all before anyway, and not just from me.
Many incredibly eloquent people have said what I'm thinking, only in better words.

What can we do?

Not a lot.
I suffer through at least 10 exhortations to VOTE every damn day. It's on the news, it's on social media, it's on the blogs I read.

And for the same reason that hundreds of thousands of people still pretend to believe in a god and go to church every Sunday (just in case it matters) I do vote.

Do I believe voting makes a difference?

No, not really.

Different people sit on their useless and arrogant asses in offices and pretend they belong there, and shit on different groups according to who their party hates the most. None of them have any integrity or capability of independent thought.

In a broad sense I will agree that my vote *could* make a difference if enough people thought the same way I do on things, but since most of the time the person I voted for doesn't get elected and the things I don't want to see happen keep happening, I'm not terribly confident.
Very little ZERO faith in the system.



Over the years I've listened to a lot of discussions between my work kids. Four years ago, although they were divided, they were able to sit down and discuss the candidates both before and after the election like rational human beings, something that the adults had a problem with.

Our conversations always lead to the same conclusion(s).

We can't control what happens in government.
We can't keep our "representatives" from doing dishonest and harmful things.

This discussion, from 2016, was particularly productive.
We talked about what we CAN do, not about feeling helpless and not being able to do anything with meaning. It was about taking charge of our own spaces and being kind. Being decent. I am tired of overused words such as mindful, but I think it fits here.

If you see something you can do to make someone else's life be better, even if it's only for a little while, then DO it.

I try to keep that in front of me.

Ordinarily if I'm able to do a little something to help, I just do it without comment. It's not about me. The small things I do are usually anonymous if I can manage it, and I don't write about them here.

But I was considering that this afternoon.
I'm not working right now, so these philosophical questions aren't being asked or discussed with 'my' kids in our little group.

I have had some discussion with other adults lately, and I'm sad to say that they're all going through some awful stuff right now. I'm definitely not alone.

I've said before that I will never have a huge amount of money, never be able to make huge, splashy donations. I'd be uncomfortable with people commenting about it anyway.

But I know from experience that doing small things can make me feel better.

So I've decided that YOU would probably feel good if you could help someone, too. This is why I will break one of my rules and tell you about something I did today. A small act of kindness.

On our local buy nothing group, a mom asked if anyone had some used Transformer toys to give her little boy for his upcoming birthday. He's going to be five, and those are his favorite thing.

I asked if I could message her. While I was waiting for her response, I visited Amazon and found a couple really cool things I know my own five year old would have loved.

She messaged me, and I sent her the link. Asked her if he'd like them, or would she rather find a different set around the same price. She was stunned, as that was the exact thing he'd chosen for 'later' because she'd explained to him that his birthday present wouldn't be on his actual birthday because money is tight right now.

I told her if she wasn't comfortable giving me her address I'd have it sent here and we could meet in the grocery store parking lot.

She gave me her address and I had the package sent to her.

It's a small thing to me, but we had quite a conversation after I told her the package would be there Monday.

Right now in her house they have one adult working. The other adult lost their job in March. They've kept the lights on and the mortgage is only a month behind. But there was no extra money. She said he was so sweet about it, "That's okay, Mommy!"

And she's having a baby in 3 months.

So I felt okay about that small gift.

It inspired me to write about it and to challenge all of you to do one good thing for someone.

It doesn't have to be big.
You don't have to write about it.
You don't even have to let me know you've done it.

I just wanted you to know that even in the middle of this horrendous political mess, in the middle of the pandemic, in the middle of the worst feelings of my life at least, there are things we can do to feel better.

The reaction of that mom made my heart very full.
I hope her little guy has a wonderful birthday.

I didn't ask who she's voting for. I don't know anything about her other than what we discussed. Those things don't matter, she's a fellow human, having a difficult time.

Do you know of someone who could use a little boost?