Life-saver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
A few months ago, I called a friend on the phone who has health
problems, just to say hello and let him know I was thinking of and rooting for
him, especially during these troubled times of Covid-19. Like me, he lives
alone, but has always been far more sociable than yours truly so I was surprised
and not a little guilt-ridden to hear him say I was the first person with whom he
had chatted all week. “No one gives a damn if you’re on your own,” he sighed, “They
are so busy getting on with their own lives, they can’t even make time to give
a friend a call.” I confessed I had
friends like that, but …
“Don’t wait for them to call, call them,” I said, “It’s
not a matter of their not caring, more like they cannot imagine what it’s like
to be lonely. People like us need to swallow our pride and just pick up the
damn phone.”
“You get lonely too?” It was his turn to be surprised.
“You bet!” I laughed, “But if I start to feel
forgotten then I know I need to give a few people a nudge. The chances are, I
won’t have to wait so long next time, and if I do, well, I’ll just give them
another nudge …”
“What about people who have no one to call or email?”
he wanted to know.
“There are organizations that recruit volunteers to
befriend others. You have a computer. Look some up and maybe even think about
giving it a go.”
He did, and has enjoyed being a volunteer for some
time, not least for the two-way rapport in making new friends; even if it’s a
voice at the other end of a phone, the chances are that voice will become a
friend.
LIFE-SAVER
It
was a scary hollow of the heart
keeping
me from seeing my way clearly,
a
sense of dying slowly,
no
one near to hold my hand, understand
the
depth of my despair,
reason
barely clinging to kinder memories
on
the wings of a child’s prayer
Each
breath I took was but sapping
mind-body-spirit,
tossing away dreams
like
human waste
without
a care even where they might fall,
no
pride left to save,
nor
reassuring voice, or comforting hands
to
help lift me from the grave
Out
of nowhere, a shrill bell ringing
as
if calling on mind-body-spirit to recover
any
discarded waste,
time
yet to recycle, put it to as good a use
as
invention can contrive
if
fuelled by such friendly persuasion as leans
on
the human heart to live
I
answered the telephone just in time
to
let a voice from the past haul me back
into
a Here-and-Now
I
had all but given up on, lively conversation
putting
despair in its place,
filling
this hollow heart with joie de vivre
for
turning its back on loneliness
No
longer feeling scared, alone, in free fall,
and always first to make a life-saver call
Labels: communication, depressio, despair, fear, friendship, human nature, human spirit, life forces, loneliness, love, poetry, positive thinking, society