In the 1960's, people took acid to make the world weird. Today, the world is weird, and they take Prozac to make it normal.
If I remember correctly, there was a nephew of Hitler's, the son of his brother Alois who changed his name after WWII. To what, I don't know, probably Schmidt.
more of a question than a musing.
I have a friend whose blog I read. She's had breast cancer and mastectomy of some sort (don't know how much). She is also dying of cancer (despite the fact that they got it "early") in her liver, brain, and bones.
She's been sick for a few years. The family's not in great financial shape. Lots of people help out in little ways. They bring over meals, they take her shopping, they take her out, etc. I've treated her to bagels/milkshakes a few times. People also sit with her when she has chemo. You get the idea.
She's having a bat mitzva for her daughter in a couple of weeks, and someone took her dress shopping. She tried on a dress and it was super incredible, but then she looked at the price tag. $500. Fancy clothes are expensive here, but that's really really really expensive. $150 is about what you'd expect to pay. She posted about her disappointment on her blog, and one of her readers contacted me and asked if I wanted to chip in and help her buy her dress.
I would chip in if I thought that it would really make her happy, but I kind of think that I'd feel like a total douche if my friends pitched in their hard-earned cash to buy me a dress that I knew none of them would ever spend that kind of money on. What do y'all think?
I'm actually more worried about the possibility of her feeling pitied rather than loved. Nobody wants pity, especially not this particular lady. And pity in the form of a $500 dress... even more upsetting, imo.
If one of her friends were super-rich and they bought it for her as a surprise, that would be ok, but most of us are just chugging along, and would never shell out this kind of cash on clothes, so I think it would be... embarrassing/insulting rather than a nice surprise for her.
Then don't get the dress. No point in getting a gift for a friend that will just make the recipient unhappy
Am I right in assuming that it would be more likely to hurt her than
to make her feel loved?
no.
For years I was of the belief that when you're in a foreign country you shouldn't try to speak their language (as an america) unless you were fluent of course because it would seem insulting that the stupid american was being condescending by try to and bastardizing the native language.
Turns out I was 100% wrong about that, and in fact lots of foreigners appreciate when you try and often try and help you out when you make a mistake.
I think it's even more complex than that. I'm not sure that the money can be raised, even if we try. We have one week.
And even asking the question is awfully awkward.
You know, you ought to get whatever money together you can, and simply put together a really nice party for her.
I don't know about other people, but if I were enduring a terminal illness, and generally feeling sick, I'd be more interested in knowing that I was loved than anything else. A dress, while well-meaning, wouldn't give me anywhere near the sense of that that a party in my honor might.
I donno. She's not admitting that it's terminal. you can look at her blog http://coffeeandchemo.blogspot.com
I've tried to get over to see her whenever I can and do the milkshake/bagel thing. Unfortunately, it's over 2 hours each way by bus, so I can manage maybe once in two weeks.
I think that other friends are doing similar things. I actually think it's better if she has a different person over almost every day than to have one big splash, because she has a lot of rough days, and having someone to play board games with or to push you to eat or to help with the housework (I also emptied her sink/loaded her dishwasher while I was over) regularly is a pretty serious show of support.
I concur.
My verry great friend Julie died earlier this year, after a very long illness, and I don't mean a year or two. 15 years ago they said she'd never see 40.
She did tho' she fought hard, I and others visited with her a lot, and I like to think that it helped her. There were days when she was so weak she could not even speak, just sitting with her seemed to help her tho'
Having someone there just being a friend would make her smile, and that girls' smile brightened the world.