GIFTS FOR THE NEEDY
I do not recall exactly which conquering hero of central Europe it was, but one of them - somehow I think it might have been Otto Von Bismarck - was reported to have taken pity on the starving populace and
had large wagonloads of potatoes shipped into the desolate area.
He did not realize that the natives considered the potato to be poisonous and unfit for human consumption. So, they fed the spuds to few remaining pigs and other livestock and did as best they could for their
own provender.
In more modern times relief-minded groups have banded together and shipped freighter loads of bulk grains to starving people around the world....our excess grains, really. They did not take into consideration that
the people actually in need had no way of grinding, crushing, boiling, cooking or baking such raw grains into edible portions. No doubt the only people who gained anything from the gift were those brokering agents who ferried the
stuff around seeking potential buyers. Bags of barley grain were sent to areas where the use of such a grain was totally no forage , fences, stables, feed stocks or farms with which to sustain the herds. Their needs was for “now” rather
than some months, or years away.
I sometimes wonder if we are doing the same sort of dis-service to the concept of giving by ignoring true needs. Could it be that many of us are contributing primarily for the inner satisfaction we, ourselves, feel from
having helped to sustained people in times of dire need. Or, what we considered to have been times of crisis in their lives.
Faulty, thoughtless giving only excaberates the plight of the needy at times. In some cases it many be prove to have been worse than not giving at all.
Think about it carefully.
Try to imagine what you would really and truly need if you were in a like situation. That is a difficult thing for most of us to do, because we have not the slightest understanding of what it is to be dismally poor and
forlornly cut off from the rest of humanity either here at home or in lands far away. Look in any direction. The needy are awaiting your sincere, thoughtfully considered, useful help.
A.L.M. August 30, 2002 [c-393wds]
