Please, I'm Begging You, for Your Sake, Not Mine!

Our newspaper publishes a section of Thanksgiving 'wishes' every year. Does your newspaper do this?

People write in a 'wish' for themselves or someone else. Other people fulfill these wishes as they can.

I didn't have a chance to sit down and read them yesterday. We bought the paper on our way 'up north' for Thanksgiving yesterday.

Today I made some time to sit down with this section of the paper and read them.

It is the most depressing thing.

I can never quite decide if I love reading these or if I hate it. I think it depends on the condition of my heart and how nasty of a hormonal situation I am in at the time.

I poured myself a strong cup of coffee and sat myself down.

If nothing else, reading these wishes reminds me that I have much to be thankful for.

But, it also causes a rise in my blood pressure.

I'm FULL of opinions. FULL.

Many, if not most of the wishes seem reasonable.

Some should be edited because of how insanely stupid the wish makes the person writing it seem.

Now, I realize that there is a point at which it is necessary to respond to needs without moralizing how the person got into the situation they are in. Really. I have messed up enough to know this. But, there is a point at which helping is no longer 'helpful'. Finding that point cannot be achieved by reading a 'wish' in the paper.

If I were a teacher, I would sit my class down and we would study the wishes. Then, we would delve back in time to as close to the precise moment where life went wrong for this particular individual. We would discuss ways which we could avoid this sort of thing from happening to us in the future.

Then, we would take a page from the phone book, and call each person listed. The message would be simple. STOP BEING STUPID.

Really. I've done stupid things, and more than likely I will do stupid things again. Maybe not yet tonight, but surely sometime tomorrow. As the sparks fly upward.

Truly, I admire the 'wish writers' who asked for help with something. I love the ones written by children asking for something for someone else.

But, if you think that the biggest need in a child's life is the latest technology to appear under the tree at Christmas. Well, you just need to stop being stupid.

Next year, I am sending in a wish.

A wish everyone can help with.

STOP BEING STUPID.