Help (I Need Somebody)

'Help' is such a relative term.  The larger impression is to lend an ear, provide financial aid, or to simply offer our condolences as a dismissal of someone else's issues.

When I say 'Help,' I mean it.  I mean helping with the dishes when you're in an emotional rut.  Mowing your lawn since you just broke a leg.  Assemble furniture in a baby's room for someone who is relaxing after a recent delivery.

It's not like I'm going to hang out with your baby anyway.  It's a newborn: it doesn't know I'm in the room; it does not know my name; hell, it barely knows the process involved with shitting itself from the science behind Peek-A-Boo.

No, I offer my help as exactly that - to lessen your burden.  The traditional, Biblical concept was to halve the load and help your neighbor.  I am bothered by people so accustomed to living a life inside a plastic bubble of cellphones, internet, and television – wrapped up in an ego centric world - that they cannot recall the last time some person genuinely expressed a physical desire to give a damn on their part.

Furthermore, I am disgusted by people who do so little to care about their fellow friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.  Now, if it's intentional, then at least you have some contrived notion of how dickly you are being.  No, this? - This is about the people that don't even notice - the ones so wrapped up in happy "Self" land that they fail to realize an opportunity to make a more genuine human connection than ever before in their life because they're playing with Facebook on their damn phones.

Look, I get it.  Social media is fun. Video games are fun.  Your life is singularly entertaining, and you don’t want to interrupt what precious fun you can find.  Someone else is not having fun, and you can share your fun just as easily.  It will not hurt you.  Hell, you might even build some character, or muscles, grow a mustache, or a larger social network for your Twitter feed.

Let’s try an example, shall we?  You're sixteen, in a fight, and three people are pummeling you into unconsciousness.  One person is recording this with a cellphone - they're the jerk, easy to figure that one out.  Another random person passes by, so beside themselves that they just don't give a damn.  Finally, after a minute goes by, some miraculous stranger jumps in, and - voila! – They actually help.  You don't get beat as badly, and the other person gets a little bruised, but you're still better off than with the other two bystanders, right?

If the news these days is to be believed, this is a common internet trend.  So is porn and watching My Little Pony reruns, but I digress. 

That's life in action, folks.  We could all use a hand, because at different stages life is beating up on us, ignoring us, or just standing back and posting the nutshots on YouTube.  It takes people to make a positive difference, and the only one that controls the choice to make that difference is you.