Give A Little Bit

"Linda and I have often talked about how grateful we are to give to our government at tax time. I don't agree with lots of things the government does- separating children from their families in border detention centers, giving handouts to robber barons while denying basic necessities to the people on whose backs this country was built and spying on its own citizens being chief among them.

HOWEVER, I've made a covenant to live in this place with my fellow citizens and as far as I'm concerned, everything I can do to keep the roads paved, to get food to families who need it, to see that the soldiers who protect me and my family at least get something to help them with the basics of life, and to fund education for the people who will be making decisions for me when I am in a nursing home- EVERYTHING I can do to make those and many other things possible comes to me as a sacred privilege.

I believe it enlarges my heart and makes me a better patriot. There is so much more to be doing beyond that- way more than enough work to go around- but I refuse to complain when Uncle Sam taps me on the shoulder and tells me that it is time to contribute.

I'll take the good with the bad until the day I am convinced there is no hope, then I'll move on to some place where I think I can do some good, but until that day comes, I am more than happy to give.

Photo Credit: www.crosscards.com

The Burdens We Carry: Honoring Robin Williams

Photo Credit: Gary Kravit

I see so many people on FaceBook posting a heartfelt piece of wisdom that goes something like, "Treat everyone with kindness because you never know what burdens they are carrying." 

Today my respect and affection for Robin Williams shot way, way up. That a human being could carry the load he did for as long as he did with as much intelligence, humor and outright compassion as he managed is, at least for me, one more sign that the world is still full of miracles. It makes me regret the times when I have responded to my own troubles by looking for someone else to blame and making my world that much smaller and narrower and more tawdry. 

You never really know what burdens people are carrying but when you find out, you can stop for a moment and pay them the respect that they are due if, like Williams, they managed to share love and laughter with a world of other struggling people. Rest in Peace.

Photo Credit: www.crosscards.com