small favors

I was doing so well with my daily updates . . . and then President's Day had to come along and ruin the whole thing!

Not that'd you'd have known it was a National Holiday yesterday. Things were in full swing in my little corner of Corporate Hell . . . I got home basically in time to throw together some food, turn my brain off and the TV on.

Are we noticing a pattern?

Tonite was a Very Special Episode of everyone's favorite little-people-reality show: Little People, Big World. If you've never
wasted a half hour of your life watching an extremely entitled, asshole-y 3 foot tall man brow-beat his entire family and spend ridiculous amount of money (from the Bank of TLC?) on wacky shit . . . well, good for you.

Last night's Very Special Episode featured Little-Dad travelling to Iraq to "help" some Iraqi dwarf children recieve surgery to correct their legs and knees. This sounds like it would be a touching act of humanitarism . . . people helping people across borders . . . Heal the World . . . blah, blah, blah. And yet, Little-Dad somehow managed to make the whole thing about his noble sacrifice -- the dangers of travelling into a war zone, how effing hot it is in Iraq, how hard it is to climb to the top of a 5000 year old temple that is not handicapped accessible.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi family was obviously moved and genuinely grateful, and super-worried about their kids. I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that the world over, parents don't appreciate having video cameras and pompous little people crowding the Recovery Room when their child is waking up from life-threatening surgery.

The Iraqi kids were so gracious and thankful that some a-hole American dwarf and his camera crew came to watch their legs get sawed open, they put up with Little-Dad's half-assed attempts at "comfort" and "bonding". Little-Dad seemed to think it would be a good idea to show the kids a video of Spoiled-Little-Son playing soccer in their lavish backyard back in America. "See, he's had this surgery too!" he shouted. Little-Dad then presented the bed-ridden Iraqi child who'd just had his femur sawed apart and screwed back together with . . . a soccer ball. Classy.

This episode reminded me about my initial goal for February . . . reaching out and being kinder and more loving towards my fellow man. Yeh, remember that? Well, Little People, Big World gave me a great example of how not to be a better person. Acts of kindness can't be done simply for the sake of being kind -- or, you know, because they make for a good TV show or blog post. It's gotta come naturally . . . in the moment. Or you gotta wanna really do it because your heart is telling you to . . . not your TLC reality show producer.

If Little-Dad wanted to spend some of his "fun money" to really do some good deeds, he would have flown those Iraqi kids to America to have their scary bone surgeries, and let the family stay on his 100 acre farm while they recovered. He would have left the TV cameras at home.

Little People, Big Mistakes.