one meal

i just finished cooking a meal for my dear friend who is being stretched to the limit

such a simple thing, really, fixing a meal for a friend

{but i know, from being on the receiving end, it IS a huge gift}

the past few years i've thought if every person simply helped the people standing in front of them, the world would be a better place

i guess, based on the ancient letter below, my thinking isn't original

one meal, one phone call, one conversation, one carpool, one smile...

chicken divan, help the world?

Theophan & I think so

I would guess that among your friends are progressive thinkers, or that you have joined a society having such people in it, and they have scattered your good sense.  Such people usually rave in this manner. 

Phrases such as “the good of mankind” and “the good of the people” are always on their tongues….the progressives have in mind all mankind or at least all of its people lumped together. 

The fact is, however, that “mankind” or “the people” does not exist as a person for whom you could do something right now.  It consists of individual persons.  By doing something for one  person, we are doing it within the general mass of humanity. 

If each one of us did what was possible to do for whoever was standing right in front of our eyes, instead of goggling at the community of mankind, then all people, in aggregate, would at each moment be doing that which is needed by those in need, and by satisfying their needs, would establish the welfare of all mankind.

Theophan the Recluse, Orthodox saint (1815-1894), in a letter to a young woman who had expressed confusion about her purpose in life.