We are so blessed

I'm on the winning edge of a fight with a bad cold, feeling much better now that the worst is over and I can breathe lying down again. I spent much of last week feeling wretched, being glad that Jane was so easy to take care of and non-requiring of much energy/chasing down, trying not to sneeze or cough on her lest I transmit some deadly pneumococcal infection to her, and happily filling Michael in on the long-term life expectancies of cold virus germs trapped in moisture globules. ('So if I sneeze on the keyboard and you touch it any time within the next five weeks, you could still catch my cold, long after I've ceased being contagious!' Hence lots of warm soapy water.)

The long weekend has given us a bit of time to mull over the aftermath of the hurricane. At first we were concerned and solicitous. I remember last Wednesday talking very seriously about what we could do to help, and Michael stated that if he owned a boat, he'd take off work and go down there and pitch in. We talked about Dunkirk and the ability of the average citizen to pitch in and make things better, and how good deeds do not require an immediate organisation, even though massive-scale rescue endeavours like this really demand it: the first step is the good will and the industry of the participants. This is, or should be, the natural reaction to great human disasters like this.

After that I was just mad at the attitudes of the survivors and felt like, if all they were going to do was to hurl invectives and reproach at their would-be rescuers, then I'd gladly wash my hands of the whole sympathy business. Can you imagine treating a convoy of National Guardsmen - who are showing up to save your life - with contempt because they didn't get there sooner?? If that's how they respond to genuine and sincere attempts at help, then I'd just as soon leave the desperate people to their fate.

But, of course, that's not how God deals with us. He does not lightly declare that we've burned our bridges when we fail to show sufficient gratitude for His goodness. Plus there are a lot of innocent people trapped with the bad apples. Plus a bit more time of reflection convinces me that what I hear from New Orleans survivors is not vox populi, but the desperate attempts of the liberal media to manufacture a story where there is none. Apparently not so many people as they would like us to think are blaming Bush for the crisis.

Anyway we spent yesterday going through our closets and drawers and collecting all the extra clothes that we've been meaning to take to Goodwill eventually. We now have several bags to take to a local disaster relief center, which will distribute items directly to hurricane victims, many of whom have already begun arriving in our county. Somehow it's so much more motivating to give something that I know is going directly to help a basic need, like putting clothes on the back of someone who has lost everything, rather than to donate to a generic charity that will help raise money for a good cause.

And I can't help thinking how very blessed we are. We can easily spare so much stuff! Giving these bags away is a very small step toward helping those in need, and won't even feel painful, because we're not even going to miss this. How great of a sacrifice can this be? We could do so much more! But right now, on the very face of it, we have the opportunity to help people out through such a no-brainer as just giving away excess stuff, which was just cluttering up our lives anyway. (Note: a lot of it consisted of hand-me-downs that were given to us in the first place, and it's all nice, albeit used, stuff. I am not advocating giving away junk to charities just to feel good about yourself and to get rid of it.)

I don't think anyone would consider that we live a fancy lifestyle. I certainly don't feel that our living standard is by any means opulent or luxurious, and yet at times like these, when confronted with the image of destitute people who have literally nothing but the clothes on their backs, I realise just how good we really have it. Knowing that I have the ability to give from my abundance makes me feel wealthy. I always tend to be wary of giving money away, just because of the whole stewardship issue and the concern that the recipient may not use the money in the most prudent fashion; we make our charitable donations very cautiously and well-advisedly and only to organisations that we believe in and trust. But there is no reason not to give to basic needs. (Okay, I suppose someone could conceivably pawn or sell some of the clothing that we give and use it to buy drugs, but that's a long shot.) Food and clothing we all have, probably to spare, and these will always be needed and (I hope) appreciated.