Pat yourself on the back and be on your way.

[december_solstice]

There are 2 folks in my friends list who constantly write FB posts like this. Funny how she tags it as not boasting. It is boasting. I mean it's licking your own asshole. Tooting your own horn.

I have profound experiences that I do not share. Some in which I still think about on a regular/daily basis, and really influence the way I look at the world, how I exist in it, ect. More importantly,  I don't seek or need praise for it, you know? The experience was valuable in itself.

People post things like this to make themselves look good, because it is only opinions of others that make them feel good. The act didn't make them feel good, sharing does. Praise does.

Heck, if you want to share, why not share statistics of homelessness, youth homelessness, ect. Why not post locations to soup kitchens to volenteer at? I mean, if your heart is TRUELY with these people...why not act as a vessel towards change?

These are real people, you know? Humanize them. Don't just post a vague story about how you helped a homeless dude today. Pat yourself on the back and be on your way. 

Comments

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

i think it's good to talk about it because a lot of people are -scared- of helping homeless bums or beggars. the media tells them that they're all crazy-loser drug addicts who earn more money from begging than we can possibly imagine and that good people shouldn't associate with them.... if you see someone on your f-list who does this kind of stuff to different beggars all the time, you might change your mind. and if you yourself get doubts about giving them stuff sometimes, you can reread your own entries and get reassured. i would go around making documenaries about the beggars here but i can't because they don't speak swedish or english...

honestly i don't think that giving pocket change or starting up a soup kitchen are any different in scale, neither of them are going to solve the problem. you have to be in a position of government or be a millionare or own a huge company. (soup kitchens and food banks don't exist here btw)

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

You 100% made a valid point. I am super biased and i probably should have mentioned that lmfao

I do believe that we should talk about it, especially youth homelessness, i think its a sign of economic failure and we need to prevent it. Obviously erradicating it on a larger scale would require big changes in the economic system...changing in wages, changes in cost of living, changes in public assistance prograns ect. But there are resources out there, usually nonprofit, that always need help. Soup kitchens and food pantries have made a big impact on my life. So were transitional living programs.

When i was in HS, our lives sort of fell apart at the seams. Thomass Dad passed away suddenly and my homelife was nonexistant...i did not live at home. Thomas was homeless for a long time and it was such a difficult time. Just...dealing with everyday life and how people care but not...i dunno, not enough to care if kids were still homeless the following day. Abywho, youre right, talking about it gets people to care i think, but sometimes when things are written that way, the gap becomes larger. Its a matter of evolving from seeing them as homeless and seeing them as people...

Sometimes i would post events on food drives, coat drives, information on assistance programs, housing, minimum wage, economic inequality, and im trying too hard. When you try too hard, when you humanize these people, make them deserving, make them your equal, suddenly, people feel different. Suddenly its us verses them. Its theyre lazy, theyre undeserving, theyre bums.

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

Obviously, i dont want to devalue this persons small act of kindness because yeah, helping 1 dude is still helping, will he be homeless tomorrow, very likely.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

I think I heard somewhere that the US has one of the highest rates of homelessness — or perhaps it was THE highest (but only for a developing country).

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's quite an issue here. I mean, it's a legit part of the landscape. It was in Hawaii too. Homelessness in Hawaii is a huge problem because of the rising cost of living. At least here, in NYC, you have a better wage to match the sky-rocketing rent. In Hawaii, not so much. It is ripe with pineapple, but not with opportunity.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

And everything's all restricted, so it's not like the real poor countries where you just go out, find a random piece of land and build yourself a shitty house....