Humanity

207.8 (double yikes)

After my mom's experience of yesterday (which I wrote about in the previous entry), I have had a general feeling of ickiness about humanity. Being at work does not really help in developing more positive feelings on this matter because I am a lawyer--hello! MM is no help, given that his job is supervising convicted felons on intensive probation. His work lends itself to lots of good stories, but not many that make you think about the good in people. LOL Many of my friends are also lawyers, some far more cynical and jaded than I, so that's a blind alley. And forget about turning on the news--ugh!

I decided that I needed to do something to feel good about humanity again. I considered going back to attending church, and I am still considering it. . . . but this is not something I can accomplish in the middle of a workday.

Oddly enough, one foolproof way I've found to feel better about the human race is volunteering my time to help others. I already volunteer as a court-appointed special advocate for M, and I don't have time to take on any more volunteering at the moment. . . . so I decided I would donate things, rather than time, to those in need. (Coincidentally, doing so could also help me in moving toward my goal of decluttering.)

I am amazed at the avenues now available for donating various items! I have a five-and-a-half year old laptop computer and have found several organizations that will take this and refurbish it for use by the less fortunate here in the U.S. and abroad. I am donating my never-worn wedding dress to Brides Against Breast Cancer (http://bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/); I filled out the form, and Mom said she would ship the dress for me tomorrow. I joined my local FreeCycle group so that I will have somewhere to send my unneeded furniture and household items when the time comes that MM and I combine households.

Also, while reading blogs, I found a link through one of the blogs I read regularly to a blog of a woman who has just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the third time. Reading about that in and of itself was not uplifting--a little depressing, actually--but what WAS uplifting to me is that a number of this woman's "blog friends" have organized an effort to raise money to send her and her children to Disneyworld. The majority of the people donating to this effort have never, and will never, meet the recipients of their generosity.

Yes, there are good people in the world. Most of us, actually, I'd venture to say. It can be easy to lose sight of this fact when we see all the evil and chaos around us.