Half-Brother to TTAM #19: Letting your life and your likes be dictated by fads.
It started about a week ago. In my facebook and twitter feeds and on internet news sites I noticed that people were having buckets of ice water poured over their heads. At first, it was just athletes and celebrities. But in just a week it's spread to everyone. Random people are being nominated to have buckets of ice water poured over them. Everybody's doing it.
What is it? Something called the 'ALS ice bucket challenge'. I know...it's a fundraiser for ALS, and to raise 'awareness' of ALS. In the past day I've seen probably 25 people do variations on this theme, all because they support the cause. They care.
But here's the thing...what is ALS? Would half the people who have taken this challenge really try to figure out what ALS is? Has their knowledge of ALS increased because of this? What are some ways their ability to cope with ALS has increased in the last week? How many have chosen to take this cause up until at least Labor Day? I'm assuming (since nobody has really explained what ALS is as part of their challenge) that ALS refers to what is sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease...a nasty disease in which one's body wastes away, named after the famous Yankee first baseman. It's awful, and I wouldn't want to get it. I support wanting it eradicated.
But, beyond raising money (something I haven't really seen anybody really doing, though one friend of mine says they have raised $31 million...but this week? Month? For who?), how do you really care? How do you show your support for this? Again, I have learned nothing even as supposedly my awareness is supposed to be raised. How do I detect that I (or somebody I know) is coming down with this? How should I help somebody who has this? Where do I even give money to help researchers? What kind of treatment options are being explored? In all these posts, nobody has explicitly said anything about this. Instead, they've had buckets of ice water poured on them. And that does, what?
The reality is that this kind of 'caring' happens all the time. Click a button on facebook, and you show your support. That's it. Want to get rid of an African child slaver? Watch a Kony 2012 video! Want to show how much you hate breast cancer? Watch the NFL as they wear pink socks for a month! Want to hate some other kind of cancer? Buy a cheap plastic wristband!
Awhile back a friend got really interested in how Christians were being persecuted, particularly in North Korea. He printed out a form letter written to the North Korean dictator and wanted me to sign it. It contained allegations that I had not investigated. It pledged to 'do everything I can to let the world know' of his actions. I read the letter, not knowing much about what was going on, but had I signed it, it told Kim Jong Un that I meant business! I am certain that all these identical form letters has left Kim shaking in his boots.
I know...I'm a harsh, unfeeling bastard. I really am. I must not care because I am questioning the intentions of a lot of people who think themselves well-intentioned. I am asking whether people will actually do something substantive about things that they suddenly now have gotten interested in, or whether they are just being sheep that are trying to make themselves look good and supportive.
But maybe it's time that we start trying to do something real and genuine, rather than just do something that is full of empty symbolism. You really want to show that you care?
-Go and find somebody with ALS or Alzheimer's or dementia and meet their caregivers. They're probably exhausted, because those diseases (and many others) are brutal not just on the one who has it, but those who take of them. Why not give them a break? Agree to sit with the person for a few hours so they can go shopping or out to dinner with a friend. If you're really brave, agree to sit up with the person for an entire night so that their spouse can get a good night's sleep.
-Ticked off about African dictators who kidnap kids? Go an volunteer to be a soccer coach or a Big Brother or a Sunday school teacher at your church. Actually get to know and support kids where you are, especially those who don't have good parental figures in their life.
-Angry about how certain religious minorities are being treated in other parts of the world? Get to know a religious minority where you live. Show them that Christians here in mid-America don't hate them just because of the color of their skin or the way that they speak or the god that they worship. Show them genuine love, rather than sharing on facebook some article about how all Muslims are obviously terrorists.
It's time we did more than just be supportive.
It's time we did more than just tell people how much we care.
It's time we stopped with all this symbolic crap, and did something real.
