What is help?

I’ve just finished my homework for my Italian class and was thinking about what it means to help someone. There is a young lady in my class who sits near me who has offered to help me. In turn, I give her the assignments when she can’t be in class. We give and take. That’s the kind of thing I want my kids to learn, to give and to take. It’s a pretty valuable lesson and it’s one that we can all benefit from.

I haven’t been the best at giving recently. I see all these pleas for help on Facebook and I cringe. I want to help people but at the same time, I’ve been burned in the past by “helping” someone, so I don’t want to help anymore. The best way I can help is through good intentions.

I realize I sound snarky and rude. I don’t mean to. I just feel that help is a two-way street. Being promised something in return for something and then being forgotten obviously cuts pretty deeply. It makes me cringe and want to go beat my head against a wall. Or the floor. Or some hard surface/object.

I will help my kids. I will help my immediate family. I will give to well known organizations. I will never again help a person who tells me a sob story and then “forgets” who helped them. That’s over.

My memory is long. My forgiveness is short.