Fourth Form of Madness

A few years back I was casually flicking through the local newspaper and chatting with my husband over a nice glass of chardonnay, or two, when I read a letter to the editor from a single mother who’s car had been broken into. In the car was her son’s money he had saved for a puppy he really wanted to buy and basically the mother was just airing her disappointment in the people that had broken into her car and stolen her son’s money. I really identified with the story, I to had suffered disappoints of that kind. However, the thing that really got me was the young boy not getting his puppy (I’m a big fan of dogs). Now this was still at a time when I was quite shy of strangers and getting involved, so I umed and arhed about whether I should do something. As usual hubby, the voice of pure reason, settled the matter by declaring “You should definitely do this, get involved”.

Fuelled by my hubby’s encouragement, and a touch of chardonnay, I sent an email to the editor offering to buy a dog for the little boy and vet treatment. Before I knew it I was meeting up with the mother and the son. I really hit it off with the mother right away and before long we were swapping life stories. She was a remarkable woman, and an absolute devoted mother and I felt fortunate to be part of this project to find a dog for her son. Over the next few weeks we went to various pounds and private sellers until he found the most adorable jack russell. It was a happy story all around but the thing that really struck me with this whole process is that when people found out what I was doing they all open heartedly jumped in and became involved in any way they could. From the seller knocking money off, to the vet clinic ringing me and advising that they would offer them a discount on all visits, to the local paper running a front page story on the boy with his new dog (which I declined to be named in, so when they referred to my hubby and I in the story they said “kindly elderly couple” – ouch I was only 34 then!)

The experience changed my life. Instead of studying philosophy or sociology only out of book, I was putting some of my learnings into practice into life and it was exhilarating and liberating. That experience taught me far more than I could ever learn out of a book. I learnt that we are at our best when we are of service to others. When we give because there is a need and you can fill it, it feels so natural and unfettered, so uncomplicated. I understand that many things stop us from offering assistance where assistance is needed but it is imperative that we examine what those factors stopping us are. When a large percentage of the world is living in poverty/in hunger, and a large percentage of this number are children, it is of the utmost important that we look within and understand how we define our duty of care to others, or to be topical, how we define the other. Be honest and see if what you find, sits well with how you want to be in this world. The rest is up to you 🙂