Tuesday, November 18, 2008

donation.

One of my guilty pleasures is reading blogs of strangers.This isn't really a new thing for me, when I was a very young child I used to watch a show they had on at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings put on by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, hoping for updates on one I'd seen previously. I've always taken it as my personal responsibility to study those missing children post cards that come in the mail, in fact I don't throw them away at least not right away. I'd make my mom look at them because she was a teacher and she might see one of those kids. In college I would spend hour perusing websites dedicated to children and teenagers that had been taken. Just hoping someday I'd see them and be able to help. I would sit in front of the computer sobbing over people I'd never met. Technology has just made an easier way for me to do it. And broadened my horizons on the people I feel the need to help. Part of me enjoys being able to start at the beginning (sometimes years ago) and reading to the present like a movie or a book of real people. The thing that's good about a new blog is that often times the most trying part of the story has been resolved and I don't have to check like a mad woman for updates, I can keep myself from being taken over by the situation. Most of the ones I start I continue to check in on, some I still check like a mad woman, everyday. I almost never comment and almost always cry. It's been awhile since I've read any that I have become super emotionally attached to. Sometimes worrying about strangers can be a bit draining. But, today I was on one of my happier blogs reading some updates when I saw an enticing banner blinking at me, begging me to help a sweet baby. I couldn't resist the click. This particular infant was born with a defective heart and was awaiting a transplant. So, as I read these entries (only 4 months worth) I really found myself over come with grief...but not for this tiny baby who needed a heart. But, for the parents who had to lose a child in order for this one to live. Every entry talks about hoping and praying for a donor heart to come quickly. Do they realize that they are asking people to pray for another infant to die? I realize that either way some precious babies life is going to end and one is better than two. But, I honestly don't think I'll be reading that one any more. I think I'll have to stick to blogs of people that are hoping for miracles and advances in medical technology. I've often struggled with organ donation. I just don't know how I feel about it. I mean I guess if you aren't going to be using your organs you can give them away, and if I needed one I guess I'd get on the list to save my own life. But, something just seems so wrong about it to me. Hoping for someone to die so someone else can live. I hope I never have to be in that situation.

2 comments:

Christie said...

all the crying... maybe you should lay off the blogs for a bit, dang!

ok, nevermind. it's good for you. they connect you to people.

i like it. read on.

Ashlee said...

I only quit that blog, and it has been a very long time since I read a sad blog, I have found a new happy one I really enjoy! yay!