Saturday, March 06, 2010

Tired of Demands


I am getting tired of the rest of the world needing my help. I feel guilty about that, as so many people have helped me when I needed it that I feel I should be paying it forward for the rest of my life. Which I will be doing.

But I am bombarded with requests for help from every side. Haiti needs help. Chile needs help, and now Indonesia has an earthquake, too!

The homeless need help, and children living in slums, God knows where. The sad animals that stare at me, pleadingly, from the animal shelter commercials need my help. Six or eight Bills in Congress need my help to pass...to help the Missing, the Battered, the Abused...

The National Parks need my help, and the Food Bank, and our local underdog Democratic candidates.

Cancer research, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, birth defects--they all want me to run, or walk, or pay for someone else to do so.

Friends and acquaintances think I need God in my life, and want to take me to church, which would open up a whole new set of demands on my time and money. Some want to hook me up with men of their acquaintance. Like I need that, either!

Note to the Universe: I have plenty to worry about with my own family and friends, thank you very much.

12 comments:

  1. It can be overwhelming. It probably bothers you more than some because you're such a caring person to begin with.

    As far as people wanting to get you religion or hook you up with whatshisnames cousin's brother because they think you'd be cute together... well forget that! Talk about pressure.

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  2. They can be so dense, it's like you almost have to come right out and say to someone like that, "Stop trying to "help" me feel better. Leave me alone!"

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  3. The problem is that the people who want to "help" me in these ways are people that I care for and would not hurt their feelings for any reason. I just dodge the bullets.

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  4. Hear, Hear to this post! I caught myself crying today for no apparent reason other than that I'm overwhelmed with bad news that I feel inadequate to improve. For almost a year prior to the 2008 elections, I had worked hard at avoiding the news...out of a desperate self-protection after years of the Iraq war and the Bush administration. Then, I made the mistake of getting excited again. I've fought to both stay in the news loop AND keep my hopes up, but I'm finding once again that I'm just not equal to it. And the majority of faith-based answers don't work for me, either.

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  5. I got a little glimmer. I haven't really got excited about much of anything since Jim died. Some of my friends say it's time for me to let it go...but I just can't see that happening.

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  6. I'm so glad to find that I'm not entirely alone in feeling overwhelmed by so many pleas for help. I know that most of them are valid needs, and I WANT to help, but I just don't have the financial resources, time or energy to help them all. Melinda and Bill Gates I'm SO not!

    I've established a list of my preferred causes to which I donate regularly. Then along comes another disaster or its political or medical equivalent. What to do?! I live in the Pacific Northwest which is "earthquake country" so the recent string of major earthquakes is not only VERY scary but demanding of my attention--and help. We could be next. But there goes my "donation plan"!

    I don't have the answer--I'm still working on figuring out how to donate wisely. I'm trying not to feel so beseiged that I donate to everything--or nothing. Fortunately, I'm happily married and not in the least religious. That helps!

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  7. It's just that they keep asking, with these TV commercials, the people who can least afford to help.

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  8. That MUTE button on the remote comes in really handy for those "gimme-mercials".

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  9. I agree with the first comment especially. You are a very caring person. You have empathy for most everyone, that is what makes you a good actress too. Don't stress what you can't or don't want to provide. You need to take care of yourself, because what you bring to the world is a gift all its own, completely separate from and more important than any wallet could provide.

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  10. Here's what we all need to remember: the human organism is suited to absorbing just so much incoming data, and no more. Technology has overwhelmed this capacity. So instead of being reduced to a condition of self-loathing because you are not destitute, handicapped, or crushed under tons of water or concrete, TURN OFF THE SET. At least for long stretches. If you confine yourself more often to print alone, you will at least be in some control. You'll be able, for instance, to stop after the first sentence, throw away the junk-mail appeal for your sympathy and cash, and move on to the next. Anyway, it's worth a try.

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  11. "TURN OFF THE SET???"

    Bite your tongue!

    You are right, of course, but this house is vewwy vewwy quiet with the TV or radio not running...

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  12. I go back to hearing acorns rolling down the roof.

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