Skip to main content

Reach Out! (your arms ARE long enough!)

With all of the bad news we regularly hear about politics, the economy, the weather, etc. sometimes we have to ignore it all and get back to basics. And by that, I mean being GOOD to each other.

This week has been a bit unusual for me. I'm a man of limited means & my car broke down. Its looking to be an expensive fix. But I will handle that, as I have everything else thrown my way, in its own time. I have a good and more importantly, HONEST mechanic (Shout out to Sam Sr. & Sam Jr. @ Glenshaw Auto!). They've never let me down in 15+ years!

But also this week, I've been trying to help 2 friends. One, who is in a world of emotional hurt. Her life is facing some immediate and definitely tough challenges. She often doesn't realize just how strong she is. She's faced some big challenges in the past and has always managed to surmount them. She is facing being homeless within the next few days. My heart goes out to her. She's at the end of her rope and finding it beginning to fray. She needs help. I've tried to give her the help that I can and have made suggestions as to other help. I pray that she finds it. She's a good gal. I also hope that I've made the right suggestions to her. But at the very least, I've tried to be there for her. I can't coddle her...she doesn't need that. It's a tough time for her and she needs to be tough herself right now! God Bless you KB!

Another friend is in jail. Has been since May. This friend is having a very tough time of it. Luckily, the jail my friend is in participates in a service called 4inmates.com. It's a way for friends and loved ones to email inmates, set up commissary accounts, etc. I was surprised to find out that I'm the only one of this person's friends/family to reach out to do this. My friend has been alone in jail for 2 months! I'm now writing every day and just recently opened a commissary account so my friend can have a snack or soda when they want. Really, its the little things that make life bearable. My friend could possibly be in jail until December. Possibly longer. Imagine not being able to have a snack or a soda for 6 months or not hearing from friends or loved ones. How well do you think that YOU would hold up?

I know life is tough for all of us right now. But for some, it is even tougher. Please, take the time to reach out to those in need. Like the old saying goes, there but for the grace of God goes I.

Be good to each other. Let's show the world that good can still conquer evil.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let's Talk Typing

When I was a kid, we had an already ancient Royal typewriter at home. Book reports, certain schoolwork, or in my case, just for making noise. Mom had a nice electric typewriter that she used for work. But that old Royal - that's probably where my love of writing began. - MM I was thinking about my old typewriter last night. Writing was serious back then. Forty pounds of steel, keys, and ribbon. No batteries. No updates. No distractions. Just you and the machine. And that machine fought back. Type too fast and the keys would jam together like two drunks fighting in a bar. Type too slowly or too lightly and it might just decide you didn’t really need that letter or that word. Sometimes it felt like the thing had opinions. Like it was quietly judging you. You learned quickly. You learned rhythm. You learned pressure. You learned patience. It was like a built-in editor made of steel and stubbornness. Made a mistake? Start over. Or, if you didn’t mind your work looking like hell, dab s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fags & Faggots

 It was late February 2002, and I was getting ready for my first trip overseas.  I had lucked into a handful of gigs, and I was thrilled by the chance. I grew up watching lots of Hammer horror films, and almost any British show I could find. Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Benny Hill Show, Dave Allen, and Tommy Cooper were regular viewing thanks to public television. I spent plenty of time reading British literature, especially Arthur Conan Doyle. My maternal grandfather’s family was British, so it’s fair to say I was an Anglophile. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of “the Queen’s English.” I was well acquainted with terms like spanner, lorry, telly, and most hilarious to twelve-year-old me, fags (or cigarettes, for those unaware). I was under the mistaken impression that “wanker” could be used as a term of endearment, not unlike jagoff. I later found this to be…not quite accurate. I was admittedly concerned about the food. While I occasionally consider myself ad...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE BOOK I'LL NEVER WRITE

He sometimes said his greatest regret was not taking the old Trans-Siberian Railway eastward to Lake Baikal. Not because he cared much for bucket lists. He considered such catalogs as vanity with stationery, for those who had wasted decades suddenly writing down ten expensive ways to continue wasting time. No, what he regretted was more precise than that. He regretted never sitting in a dim canteen somewhere near Irkutsk while some broad-faced stranger lied to him magnificently over soup and vodka. He regretted never hearing the room laugh at a joke he only half understood. He regretted missing stories that would now likely never be told the same way again. His body had long since vetoed such ambitions. These days he was lucky if the month’s arithmetic ended with enough left over for prescriptions. If Melinda French Gates wished to finance a crippled Pennsylvanian’s global adventures, he remained open to discussion, but until then, conversations near Lake Baikal would have to survi...
Post a Comment
Read more