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glort Offline [X]
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Guess it depends on your idea of deserving.
I shot a terminally I'll woman some years ago and wrote about it here.
Hours after we did the pics and she told me it was the last thing she wanted to do before she died, she did. She went from the shoot to the hospital and passed away there.
I could never do that again. It tore my guts out for months.
Maybe it was her two sons that were the nearly same age as my brother and I were when we lost our mum that was a bit too close to home but I am way too lacking in guts to do that again. I know there are people that photograph sick and still born babies and I can only Imagine the strength that takes and wish I had some of that true grit as well. I don't and never did.
I'm sure that it will inflame a lot of do gooders but I will never give money to feed starving children in poor countries.
I remember when I was in Kinergarten as a kid putting money in the box for the starving kids and all through my life seen endless appeals and ads and been approached for donations.
In nearly 50 years, they have not fixed the problem. There are still starving children and probably always will be.
I think about the money I did give over the years and how it might have " saved" some kids and what the effect could have been.
Logically, those kids that I and the other kids took money to school for and gave for are our age now. As well as going on to have more starving kids of their own, the current starving kids are most likely their Grandchildren.
Did the other kids and I in kindergarten save anyone or did we just pave the way for more pain and suffering?
I don't know but I do know that if something hasn't worked in 50 years, expecting a different result from doing the same thing is manical.
In any case, I believe in getting your own house in order before you go worrying about the next Guy's. Plenty of people I could help on my own doorstep if I were so inclined.
There are other things I can do and not go round the twist any more than I already am however. I promised to " Donate" my wedding services to someone yesterday.
Truth is I made my mind up about it a while back, just hadn't told them.
My deserving people is a guy I don't know that well and didn't know at all till a couple of years ago and his GF.
Didn't know his fiancee either but over the last couple of years, these people have flawed me with their generosity, kindness, thoughtfulness and help.
The guy played soccer with my son. They were pretty friendly and got on well.
He was devastated when we lost my son and what he has done to remember him and for us is light years beyond anything money can buy that's for sure.
I started writing all the things he has done for us and to honor my boy from organising memorial golf days, memorial soccer gala days and so, so much else but it was sounding like a sob story so suffice to say, what this guy and his Gf has done for us is beyond my literary skills to put into words and that's something in itself.
And they haven't done it once, Last weekend they organised the 2nd memorial day which as even bigger and more of a tribute and only a couple of weeks before, another golf day.
When he found out we were having trouble with the moving house and getting everything done, he asked if we would like a hand and turned up here yesterday morning with the big work truck he told the boss he WAS taking and brought a few mates to help we didn't even know.
They moved a lot of stuff and were a tremendous help.
He knocked back the money I offered them in appreciation and wouldn't even take enough for a slab of beer.
It is not an exaggeration to say I didn't even realise people like him existed. I certainly would / could not be as thoughtful as he has, I guess I just don't have the amount of good in me. Through this whole ordeal, this guy whom I didn't even know his name 2 years ago stands out as the most generous, caring, kind person throughout. Every so often I get an email asking how we are going, anything we need, letting me know he and his Gf are there for anything we want.
Just an amazing guy and not what you would expect to look at him.
He and his GF are getting married soon as they want to start a family but have done it pretty tough. They have put a lot of their money towards helping his sick and elderly mother and are not high income earners.
She asked me about shooting their wedding a few months back and wanted a ball park figure for the cost. I said I'd have to know more before I could give a cost.
No way in hell I was ever going to charge them.
Yesterday the guy after sweating his guts out helping me, says he wants to know how much they need to set aside for the wedding pics. I said nothing at all. He was insistent on paying. I was adamant that it would be our gift to him as a small token of my appreciation for all he had done for us and the endless support.
He wasn't happy at all with that. In the end I said to him, you are always asking what you can do for me, let me do this for you as my boy would have wanted me to and to give us the satisfaction of returning a fraction of the things you have done for us.
He dismissed all he has done as something anyone would do. I told him it was not at all and was something I'd never forget nor not humble me for the rest of my days.
Now they could probably could cut back on their very modest wedding and pay a shooter. They are not exactly living on the streets or on the bread line but with the high cost of rent and living here, they do have to watch their $$ very closely and I know they stay at home a lot and budget everything they do. He works all the overtime he can get and she was working the first day of her new 2nd job yesterday, a Sunday.
The world is unfortunately very full of good, needy and deserving people and causes.
I don't know them all and I'm not in a position to judge them as to whom is the most deserving or what the criteria should be. I know there are people in a far better position to help deserving people like the Gubbermint whom spend vast resources of moronic shit instead of taking care of those whom could bloodywell need a hand. I know it's all proportional though. Is the struggling to pay his mortgage and keep a roof over the kids heads more or less deserving of a hand than someone living on the streets? I don't know who has the most stress, worry and real hardship .
What I do know is I can repay a fraction of the overwhealming kindness and thoughtfulness this couple have given my family and I and the way they have honored my son, by the token gesture of shooting their wedding for them.
To me this is a drop in the bucket to what they have done for us. I can only give them a bit of my time and effort. They have given us far more than money can buy.
I can't even lay words to what they have done has meant to us. You know when I'm lost for words it's something and nothing will ever come close to describing the thankfulness, admiration and I guess love I have for these two.
I spose deserving causes come in many shapes and forms but I cannot think of anyone more deserving of MY help than this couple.
Shooting their wedding will be every bit as much as me having the chance to say " Thank you" for all they have done for us as it will be something for them.
People that help me are deserving as far as I'm concerned and what these people have done for us goes so far beyond shooting a wedding that I could shoot 100 for them and it would still not put us on an even keel in my book.
They keep telling me that what they have done for us is no big deal and they were happy to do it. Shooting weddings is no big deal to me and I'll be more than happy to throw everything I have got at their pics and whatever I can do and call in some favors to leverage it to be the best day I can for them.
To me, they deserve it well and truly.
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Aug 14, 2017 at 05:30 PM |
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