Too Proud For Help

In the place we live, we have had nearly 3 ft of snow over the last 11 days. A break during the weekend meant that we thought we were in for a little bit of thawing as the sun shone and the temperatures crept up a bit. However as I write this, it is snowing, again, very heavily and we are back to having to dig people out at the top of our farm track.

I have wondered over these few days on the welfare of other people. We live rurally and there are pockets of houses all over the countryside and I find myself worrying about people I don't even know exist!

So, whilst in my crusader-mode I have offered our 4x4/tractor services to those people who are stuck or in need of supplies. I do this out of my own feelings of moral duty to help other people. So I was very surprised when someone asked me how much I am charging to do this. At first I was insulted that people assume I will ask for money but then I realised that this is the age where you can't get anything without it having a price tag.

No-one has taken me up on my offer, I even asked for other 4x4 owners to get in touch so we could arrange some kind of support to those who need it. Again, no one has come forward and I find this very difficult to understand why. Pride, I think has quite a bit to do with it, there seems to be a stigma of weakness if you can't fend for yourself. There is also an apathy in helping other and quite a few adopt the attitude if they are ok, then thats fine.

Our old neighbours went without heating for 3 weeks and never mentioned a thing. If they had, we could have leant them 4 electric heaters, but it seemed preferable to them to be freezing cold as opposed to knocking on our door.

My thoughts are; drop in on your neighbours, stop and ask people if there is any help you can give them. Ring the people in your phone book because even if you can't help them directly, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will be glad you cared enough to call.