Yes, Open Eyes, my point exactly. People who need all their time to "tend their own garden" shouldn't feel, or be made to feel, as if they were in some way ignoring their obligations. Nor, to my mind, need they get themselves upset about suffering in distant parts of the world when they need all their time and energy to care for themselves and their family.

Taking care of one's self and one's family is absolutely everyone's primary obligation that comes before anything else. If anyone has time or energy left over after that there are many, many opportunities to be of service within one's own community.

The media are full of news about far-off suffering in distant lands about which we can do little other than contribute money, if we have any to spare. The pictures and the news reports are heartwrenching, and many of us, seeing and hearing them, feel badly that there's little we can do. I don't think we ought to feel badly about misery we can do nothing to help. That's for governments and NGO's and people like Bill and Melissa Gates, or just people like us if we have a few hundred dollars a year to parcel out to different charities. But we mustn't let it get us down if we don't have that money. Most of us are doing the best we can, and that's all that can be asked of us.

Take care.