Too Much Too Little Too Late

I went by the post office today to buy a book of stamps. The line was long and slow moving. Before I went in the door, passed two women taping up about six large boxes for mailing on the trunk of their car. I noticed a couple of them were packed with food items. I smiled, said hello and simply asked "Puerto Rico?" One of the women replied they were for family members. I simply told them "God Bless you all...and I'm so sorry this country has been so slow to react to help those American citizens. It's embarrassing, and I apologize."

I got inside and found a long and slow moving line. Every person in there besides me and one African American dude were Hispanic, shuffling forward in line, moving a pile of taped up boxes along with them...doing what they could to help out family and friends back home, living in more than catastrophic conditions.

I have been a server for almost forty years and worked with more Hispanic people than a lot of people ever will. They are quite literally the back bone of the restaurant industry. They are some of the hardest working people I've ever met, from bussers to dishwashers to utility to cooks to sous chefs. Off hand I can't think of one lazy Hispanic person I've ever worked with. I'm sure there are a few, but more often than not, they are hard working, great producers and many of them send part of their paycheck back home to help other family members.
He's from Puerto Rico and most of his family is still there. They don't have power, they don't have water, they don't have gas or diesel for generators, they don't have ice or even food. The hospitals don't even have power.

How can this government, our government, my government have waited so long to help these American Citizens?

Everyone here, in their air conditioned house with mobile devices and internet wants to go on and on and on about NFL players (peacefully) protesting police brutality while American citizens are literally dying, living with inhumane conditions while enduring tropical heat.



That's what we need to be going on and on and on about. That's what should bother people the most.


Another thing which bothered me was seeing all those people in the United States Post Office paying to mail all these heavy packages. One woman in front of me paid seventy dollars. Can't we allow these packages to be mailed for free?

I don't have a lot of money, but  have all the necesitites and even amenities of a pretty great life. I have a job where I can make more money any time I pick up an extra shift and walk out the door with it...that night.

Here's what I can do.

I can take this stash of water we have stockpiled in our garage when Tim's company delivered it before and after Irma hit and can take all the baby wipes we bought, wondering if we'd need them to bathe with if the water went out and ran out. I can take the huge bag of every size battery known to man that we have and drop it all off at the American Red Cross to be shipped to Puerto Rico. I have so many clothes I never wear, spare flip flops, even extra paper towels in the garage. I have enough spare sheets to make beds for ten people. I have enough canned goods to feed us for two weeks.

None of this will go very far in Puerto Rico, but if every stateside American did the same, it would.


My offering is a grain of sand, but if the other 323.1 million people living here did the same, it would make a huge difference to millions in Puerto Rico, with nothing gone but things you had to spare.

Katrina wasn't kind to NOLO, Texas was devastated recently as well, the Keys took an awful hit too and even people here in Orlando are still flooded...but they are here. We can reach them and help them rebuild.

The Alchemist is the first book I've ever read with a highlighter in my hand the entire time. There are enough inspirational quotes in that book to change even the sorriest person on earth.

I recently bought a copy for someone who has been struggling. I thought they needed to read it. I started to loan him my copy but I have so many things high lighted in mine that it feels like a part of my soul.

I have faith.

I have doubts, just like I had today, but also think that positvity begets positivity. I've been through a lot this past decade...but millions and millions of others have gone through so much more and actually makes me grateful for our tiny downward blip on the grand screen of life.



I gotta give credit where credit is due.

I left the computer in our bedroom while finishing this blog, went into the kitchen and asked my husband as I passed by, who was sitting three feet away in our tiny temp rental living room what song tied this blog together?

Bam!!

This guy...we met, both broke as jokes but flourished then failed but always remained steadfast.

He nailed it.

All you have to do is "give a little bit."

Till next time...COTTON