Elderly Woman Blogs Herself to Death...and No One Notices!

By Si Dunn

That grim scenario is happening somewhere in the world right now. Indeed, millions of us are blogging at this very moment and attracting perhaps 10 readers each, if we're very lucky.

The World Wide Web supposedly connects us all to each other. We somehow feel that we are now "in touch" with the universe as we blog and Tweet and update our FaceBook and MySpace pages.

Some people, however, are pouring their very hearts and souls into their blogs and Web pages at this moment, and no one is paying any attention to them at all.

Well, at least they have a way to cry out for help, you might be thinking.

Which leads, naturally to: What about the millions (billions?) of people still living in lonely--and non-electronic--isolation? How do they cry out for help and get noticed, if everyone else now is staring at screens or walking (and driving!) with handheld devices held up to their faces?

We can't fix everyone's problems. Many of us can't fix anyone's problems, much less all of our own.

Yet maybe, just maybe, if we step away from our keyboards and put down our handheld devices for a few minutes this challenging Christmas season, we can help bring a bit of comfort and perhaps a bit of joy to someone somewhere.

You may be feeling overwhelmed at all of the needs now surging out there--so overwhelmed that you'd rather just sit at your computer, send everyone on your email list an electronic Christmas card and be done with the holidays.

Don't turn away; don't turn inward. Take time--just a little time--each day for the next few days to do something for someone else, someone less fortunate than you. Then, after the holidays, don't stop. Even if you can do nothing else except tip a waitress an extra dollar or donate an old lamp to Goodwill or help an elderly neighbor rake her leaves. Anything helps; even small gestures matter.

Yesterday, in just a few minutes' time, I mailed some Christmas money to a laid-off relative, then I created a donation bag containing five shirts, two pairs of pants and two pairs of shoes and took the bag to a nearby drop-off kiosk.

I still have plenty of shirts and pants and shoes left. But people much less fortunate than I am may receive my donation and be grateful to have something different and good to wear to a job interview or to a Christmas dinner at a church potluck--or to just get through another winter day with a little more hope.

Today, I will pare down and donate a few more things that have lost their charm for me yet are still good enough to help others. And I will give a few bucks to a local food bank. (Every one of them in America now needs a bailout, because so many people in need are showing up at their doors.)

Of course, what I'm doing and feeling good about today adds up exactly to diddly-squat on the cosmic scale. I know that. And I don't let it get me down. I did something, and I will do something more.

Individually, we can't fix everyone's problems. We can't save the economy. We can't stop the flood of layoffs and foreclosures. The list of We can'ts is absurdly long. Yet, we can do something. (Yes, we can!) We can help someone. The old and shopworn saying is still very much true: Every little bit helps.

We should not try to hide from the overwhelming enormity of the current economic disaster and think that all we can do about it is whine--and blog.

"Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but not be heard." (Proverbs 21:13.) "He that giveth to the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse." (Proverbs 28:27.)

Get up from your screen for a while. Do something tangible now. Donate something; send something; give somebody or some organization a little of your time, attention, effort and--if possible--money.

"Send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared." (Nehemiah 8:10.)

Then, once you are back at your screen again, if you happen across someone crying out in a blog or on a message board for help and attention, offer a hopeful reply, if you can. Let them know that someone out here has heard them and has understood what they are trying to say. That may be just enough to help them make it through another hard day, another personal crisis, or another week of isolation and loneliness.

"Thou shalt open thy hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land." (Deuteronomy 15:11.)

Even if you have to use the World Wide Web (and ridiculous shock-jock headlines such as "Elderly Woman Blogs Herself to Death...and No One Notices!") to help do it....

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Want to Help Fight the Recession? Buy American...Anything!

By Si Dunn

Billionaire Warren Buffett recently has announced that he is now aggressively buying American stocks, because the current financial crisis has left them undervalued and ripe for turning a profit once conditions improve.

Most of us won't be buying large blocks of stock any time soon, of course. But there is another, less-expensive, way we can follow Mr. Buffett's lead.

The prices of American services and American-made goods also are being depressed by the economic downturn, as providers and merchants struggle to keep their doors open and pay their employees during the long months of recession that lie ahead.

We'll all have to be careful with our money, of course. But those of us who still have jobs and savings should make a special effort to help keep our favorite restaurants, car repair shops, laundries, book shops, gift shops, produce stands and other small firms in business.

We can't help everyone, of course. We can't save the economy on our own. But if we make a deliberate effort, at least a couple of times a week, to buy something extra or get a long-overdue problem fixed, we can keep a little money moving in our local economies.

The laundry owner who makes a few extra bucks today by dry cleaning your suit may decide to buy a hamburger on the way home from work. The tire salesperson who was happy to replace your thin tires earlier this week may have gotten just enough commission to buy a spouse a birthday cake from a favorite little bakery. A $5 gift you're planning to buy tomorrow may help provide the shop owner with just enough lifted spirit to decide to stay in business.

As the old saying goes, every little bit helps.

And don't forget the charities, churches and special programs in your community. The ones you have supported could use an extra dollar or two right now. And the ones that you've thought about supporting are now in need of something more substantial than your intentions.

Everyone is hurting, and we're all in this together.

If we each do a little bit and keep making it a weekly habit, our small gestures can add up to big help in a hurry, for our neighbors, our community and our nation.

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