Do you give a…

So I was watching Oprah the other day when forced to the confines of my couch and daytime television due to some unidentified bug I had picked up, sidebar I feel a great deal of pain for every housewife in this country who is subjected to daytime TV – I fear your IQ is reduced by 10 points for every hour you are subjected to the drivel, sadly daytime TV is like driving past an accident, you don’t want to look, but just cant help yourself. I must admit I kind of enjoy Oprah, I’m a big softie and am clearly a sucker for her emotional, stereotypically American gimmicks – the latest of which was a series called ‘The Big Give’ which she ran. Now the gist of the show is that contestants run around the country with money to see who can out give the other and in return they receive 1 million dollars, but that’s the surprise, they have no clue.

Point is it got me thinking, do we really give enough? I have this thing I do where I keep a bag of apples in my car for all the homeless guys, which sadly are on every corner and in all honesty I take issue with giving them cash ‘cause who knows what they do with it, besides an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But is that really enough? Do you even notice the homeless guys anymore, are you even aware of the pain that exists around us, have we become so desensitized that our own reality, is the only reality that even matters to us anymore?

I live in Sandton and a stone’s throw away from this place called Tasha’s – its awesome, they have amazing food and the service is pretty good too, but each weekend, Sandton’s finest clamor for a table, to see and be seen, strutting their big rimmed sunglasses and fake tans. I cant help but wonder if people bother to look past their current realities, look at the bigger picture, realize that not having the latest SLK and Ed Hardy gear does not really matter in the grand scheme of things. Yea, I’m as guilty as the next at being self-absorbed, but especially because it is the “season”, I challenge you to open yourself up to realities beyond your own, to see the needs around us with fresh eyes and perhaps then the exoskeleton that has formed around our hearts will begin to crack and we can begin to experience that human emotion so many of us had long forgotten – compassion.