It came upon
a late evening, clear.
As she rolled over,
not connected,
and I tried
(in vain)
to reconnect
(even though she was
late-night medicine
falling asleep),
she mumbled:
“Did you ever notice:
You try to help others
with their problems?”

A truer social media observation
was never made.
Facebook philanthropy
is alive and well.
How easy it is
to fix,
chastise,
or praise others
from afar,
when we have
our own issues
to deal with
right where we are?

Why do we solve for others?
Because it’s easy.
Because it’s quick.
Because it makes us feel
good about ourselves
and what we can do.
Because it’s fairly risk free.
Because IF they talk back,
we can ignore them.
Because we have
no responsibility
if our advice
or our helping
is terrible.

But if I have to answer
my children,
my spouse,
my parents,
my relatives,
my friends,
my neighbors,
face-to-face,
or through a phone call,
or in real time,
that’s risky!

They might not like
what I have to say.
They might get angry.
They might get frustrated.
They might lash out at me.
It might not go well.

Then again,
of course,
it might go fantastically.
And wouldn’t that be worth
all the risk
that there could be?