I was listening to a podcast this morning while walking my dog Harry and it occurred to me that I have been living in a bubble. What does it take for someone to get outside of their own selves and look really look at others who need some help. Then, how do you go about helping them? There used to be a community where mothers got together with other mothers to do laundry, bake bread, sew, teach their children, nurse their babies, etc. Now we all stay inside our large American homes and do our own thing. It is a very lonely existence and so different from our ancestors. I realize that not everyone was included in community, there have always been the poor, the unwashed, the outcasts. Course lots of people are going to work to pay for all their stuff and their large houses. The other part of this is our families are all over the place, children move away, live far enough that I can’t just pop over and babysit, or play. It is hard not to feel like they have chosen to live away from me.
One of my desires is to be with people and help them. The thing is that there is this stigma in America that if you go and knock on your neighbor’s door you are bothering them. We are afraid, we stay inside of our houses, we peek out the window to see what’s going on when a fire truck siren is heard close by. Some of us actually will go out and see what’s up. Most of the time I stay inside not wanting to bother someone else. Is that what it is all about? Bothering someone else if you involve yourself into their lives? I am really troubled this morning after hearing about two more teenagers who committed suicide at one of the High schools near us. I think it is time to break out of my comfort zone and help someone.