CarrieDaway

Annecia moved in with us last month and last week her car broke. We had three options:

• Let her figure it out
• Buy a beater for her to drive
• Buy a new car for us and let her drive Danny’s car.

In the first, she has no means to get a car and without one she’d have to quit her relatively new job. Sure she could try to find one in walking distance of our house but that seems like an awful reason to tarnish your work history (note: the car issue isn’t her fault).

A beater might be cheap upfront but it’s a risk. It could have problems that cost money to fix. If there was an accident that impacts insurance rates (that are already beyond ridiculous just because of her age). And if it broke down it could compromise her safety.

We haven’t had a car payment in a couple years and didn’t plan on buying a new car but we can buy a car. And we know that Danny’s car is in good shape and has a few years left in it. Deciding to let Annecia use it was a very short discussion.

Our decision was a no-brainer to us but when people hear about it they are surprised/shocked and say how nice it is of us. I appreciate the sentiment and the intent but the truth is I’m frustrated. I feel that as a society we’ve become so entrenched in having a philosophy about how to help people that we’ve stopped actually helping people.

100 years ago families used to work together on a farm or would band together to send one member to school or to help others come to America and let them stay with them once they got here. There was a belief and understanding that if one person succeeds we all win. In today’s world, our attentions are so focused to betterment of ourselves that we’re leaving far too many people behind.

No one chooses to be born and the circumstances to which you’re born are beyond your control. Some of us get lucky and I think we should share that luck with others.

I don’t believe we can help everyone but do because that we can each help someone and that will have a ripple effect.

So my message today is love your fellow human as much as you can and share as much of the goodness in your life because a lot of us have more than we really need.