Be Nice To Me...

... I Gave Blood Today.

Those stickers have always seemed a bit needy to me, so I declined one when it was offered.  But on second thought, we all hope that people will be nice to us.  Specifically asking for it isn't really that beyond the pale.  Is it?  Just: assertive.

Anyway.  I did donate blood.  And my Me juices came out faster than they ever have before!  I was done in a little over five minutes, blood pressure low and iron count adequate: a personal best.  Given the opportunity to donate, I pretty much had to.  Dad's gotten a few pints of blood and platelets over the past week or more, and every time I looked at that little "Volunteer Donor" sticker, upside down on the hanging plastic bag, I was very grateful to that stranger, and desirious of helping out similarly.

I've donated before: blood and hair (also here and here).  I'm in the Caitlin Raymond Stem Cell Registry, my driver's license says I'll be an organ donor when the time comes, and in the nearer future I'll possibly be parting with some eggs.  In the process for the latter, the extensive application asks why I'm donating, so I've been thinking about that.  I suppose I've always felt like if one has a biological ability to share parts of themselves to help others, they also sort of have an ethical imperative to do so.  It's not for everyone, and there's a myriad of reasons why giving and helping (volunteering time, resources, etc.) in other ways might be preferable.  But I've never been squeamish about giving of myself, literally.  I actually think it's kind of cool to be, even tenuously, connected to others on the planet in a biological way.  And hey, I'm not really using it.

Happily (if that word can be appropriately applied here), the recent events in Haiti seem to have spurred so many to help however they can.  Silver lining, you know?  That's an impulse that needs to be flexed in our society more often, and I wish it didn't take a tragedy and round-the-clock media coverage for it to happen.

Months ago in Arizona, I was teaching myself geology from kid's books (like you do) and I came upon this quote from Roman philosopher Seneca, writing in 62 CE about the catastrophic volcanic eruption in Pompeii, Italy:

Can anything seem adequately safe to anyone if the world itself is shaken, and its most solid parts collapse?

At the time, it struck me as personally relevant, and later it came back to me as globally relevant as well.  How can we bounce back from these things?  How do we regain a sense of normal, a sense of peace, a sense of safe?  Time, space, and nature are great healers, it is true.  But I've always found the comfort of another human being to be imperative (another imperative!) to getting back to okay.  A hand to hold, an arm to lean on, soft words repeatedly spoken.  A line in this song I can't stop listening to (this song on repeat on my headphones as I lap around the Catlin Gabel track again) says, " 'Cause in the end we have each other/and that's at least one thing worth living for."  And it's sappy.  And that's not even my favorite line in there.  But really - caring for others, being cared for.  Honestly and with recognition that everyone wants someone to 'be nice' to them.  It's got to be one of the valuable things to dedicate your life to.


Get yourself ready for some hipster schlock!