Counter World Clockwise

“I’d buy your love.”

            Bare Naked Ladies - If I had a Million Dollars

Money doesn’t buy love, but anyone who says it doesn’t buy happiness is a fool.  You do not need money to be happy, and you don’t need money to fall in love, but it really doesn’t hurt either.

 I try, I really do.  An extra dollar into the donation bin at the check-out line; volunteering in mentor programs and buying an extra bag of groceries for the food shelf.  Donating money to “Feed the Children”, and babysitting the neighbor’s children because you can tell that all she really needs is just an hour to get away and can’t afford a babysitter to do it with.  I know my limits and I keep within them most of the time; but I find myself dreaming of all of the good I could do if I wasn’t barely making ends meet myself.

Don’t get me wrong; I have a good life; but one of my greatest sorrows is watching someone struggle when you would do nearly anything to help them somehow.

The world is a big place, and we can’t help everyone; but when it is right there in front of you, and you are helpless to do anything that will really matter in the long run…It sits with you.

 And so I’m back to daydreaming.

Daydreaming of what I would do if money wasn’t an issue.   Of what I would do if I won the lottery or had even one million of the success that certain people of hollywood squander with flamboyant wastefulness.

 I’d buy a home.   A real home instead of my little apartment.  A home with a backyard and a few bedrooms.   I’d take up foster care.  Because I would have a home that was paid for, and wouldn’t have to worry about mortgage payments, I wouldn’t have to worry about if I could pay my bills on time and just give those kids something that all children deserve…a chance to learn who they are; remember how to dream, and be given a chance. 

I’d buy my C6 friend a real car and not the deathtrap, gas guzzler of doom that she drives now. 

I’d buy a second house, one with lots of rooms and just let my friends live there.  Good people who have jobs but just can’t seem to get ahead because it’s hard to get ahead when you started off so far behind.  In return, they just have to do one thing.  Take up volunteering…anywhere, anytime…but just do it.

I’d get a list of all the local schools and get a list of the children who are on free-lunches and then send them home with a backpack loaded with food; a 100 dollar grocery gift card and fill thier locker with all the school supplies you could possibly need; and just for them…a 50 dollar gift certificate to a store where they can buy something for Themselves…

 I’d make sure that none of my friends had to agonize over how they were going to feed their family that week.

But I am a modest person, who lives a modest life and as much as I’d like to do those things, they are at this time, far beyond my means.   So I’ll keep volunteering, I will keep giving that extra dollar at the store, and donating an extra bag of groceries here and there, or dropping off a bag or two at a friend’s place so I know her family can eat a bit better that week; and I’lll try to do all that I can do, even without money.

 …You don’t need money to help someone.

And that’s sort of the point.    No one has an excuse for not helping someone else, no matter how little they have.

…What kind of person can watch someone’s pain and not want to do something?

Will any of those things change someone’s life?  …No, but it will make someone’s life better, if even for a single day.

 We all deserve one day of happiness…it gives us the hope we need to keep trying.

One day, I’ll be able to do more to do more, but for now, I’ll do what I can.

 More of us should.