If they cut open people the way they do trees to count the rings, I suspect that the indications for this past year would show marked, even catastrophic, distress. A weird way to begin a Thanksgiving post, but…you know what I mean, right? I’ve been struggling lately with the concept of blessings. When we receive something we really needed or experience even more than we needed we often say we have been blessed. For many that is connected to a belief in divine intervention. If that is true then what about all the folks who aren’t receiving what they really need or experiencing what it’s like to have more than they need? Are they not good enough for God to love them or care for their needs? This is beginning to feel too much like the poor children who see what Santa brings the affluent children and wonder why Santa looked at them and found them lacking. I have no answer for that except that I know that blessings are not about some folks being more deserving than ...
I’m in a couple of give-away sort of groups and I have mixed feelings about people posting something (especially food) by saying they want it to go to a needy family. That puts the responder in the position of publicly outing themselves to the group as being needy. This bugs me. This is not mutual aid. No matter how well-intentioned, this practice comes across as an attempt at playing Lady Bountiful. Why? Years ago I got into a bit of a kerfuffle because I objected to a (former) local blogger taking and sharing photos at a back-to-school giveaway event. My reasoning was that people turning out to receive school supplies were not automatically giving their consent to be publically identified. They deserved the respect of having their presence there - - to support their children - - to be no one’s business but their own. Not everyone agreed with me, least of all that blogger. It was a public event, therefore it could be covered. No thought, no nuance, no emp...