Generous 2

I was gobsmaked at something said.  A guy told how people had come from a country of real need and declared “we cannot live here.”  When asked why they said, “we feel we are living in a lullaby.  We are being lulled to sleep.”   I reckon I can see where those people are coming from.  In my mind we have it pretty good here.  Often our worst off are better off than many.
Yet this is the society I was born into.  I do not dislike that, or resent it, or want to be somewhere else.  I recognize something else that is a conclusion I have come to as a result of asking a question of myself.
How can I be generous without it being financial?  For me the answer is simple and profound at the same time.  Although my society is rich in many ways financially, it is poor in so many things. 
It is poor in people that are willing just to listen.  I was amazed at an experiment I saw on tv.  A number of people in the inner city had signs on themselves that just said “a listening ear.”  There was no shortage of people that just sat to unload themselves and were relieved there was someone who would just listen.
Our society is poor in people willing just to be there as company with no other agenda than to help someone know they are unconditionally cared about.  The regard our society seems to have for carers can be seen in their pay rates that have recently come to light.  I am amazed how we pay doctors a gazillion dollars and carers so little.  Yet both to me can deal in matters of life and death.
I have heard it said that a society can be measured by its care for those who cannot care for themselves.  I reckon we do ok, but we could do a lot better.
Also I reckon our society is poor in people willing to offer assistance with no thought of “what’s in it for me.”   I see them in a crisis, but they are fewer and further between in the everyday.
Trouble is, it seems more and more the question can be asked, “what can I do to help?”  When I read and am absorbed in a book at twilight, I do not see how dark it has become until I look up.  I feel we have thrown out so much, and the world is now a more confusing place than it has ever been.   Hopes are offered and hopes are dashed.  It feels like we are sleepwalking into the abyss. 
It is not a subject I have given much time to, but I know it is valid.  My thinking is very much based on “I want to do for others what I would like done for me.”  I know caring makes a difference to my life.  I do not know there is much better than to feel my caring has made a difference in someone else’s life.
That is the goal anyway.  As always, I reckon goals are good.  And as always, I know I need help with that one.