Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Everybody Wants Something

January 15, 2014

As the song goes, “Everybody wants something from somebody”. It makes no difference whether it is a tax deduction, a favor, or a free gift. It makes no difference where you live either.  It is only natural that those who want try to take from those who have. Of course the givers want something too. It’s a big circle filled with delusions of entitlement and self-deception.  

Here in Liberia the asking is more direct, person-to-person, this makes it more desperate.  A young mother comes to your door for money to pay for her child stricken with malaria, a widow whose husband was killed in the civil war wants at least a better education for her sixteen year old daughter, children ask for food, or an adult dying of kidney failure waits to die because dialysis is not affordable.  One continually wonders whether any interest in you is solely for the purpose of getting something.


Yet, I should not kid myself, for I am no different or more deserving than those at my doorstep. I want too. The difference is my ability to differentiate my wants from theirs, because I am more deserving.

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