Heart on Sleeve, But What A Heart...
Y'know how I don't normally say anything that personal around these parts? Well, my opposite in this area is probably Scheherezade, whose blog is pretty much a chunk of her being ripped out and served up raw on a web page. She'll get herself in trouble one of these days, but in the meantime, it's quite a ride. Take this, after a long story of her becoming a boat owner:
For me it was a quiet revelation. I never asked anyone except family or the very closest of friends for help with things like this. I'd always been uncomfortable and extremely apologetic borrowing things from neighbors, finding rides to or from the airport, or asking a friend to help me move a sofa. The casual way Meg solved our problems by recruiting advice or spare hands or tools from our circle of sailing buddies astonished me. And what amazed me even more was how much people enjoyed helping us out. They would drop by, get involved, and stay for a long time. They liked giving us advice and showing us how to handle things. They OFFERED help and I began to realize they meant it. We became closer to the whole sailing community. They were rooting for us. Somehow asking people to go out of their way for us made us more part of the group, not less.
A very worthwhile lesson. Of course, it's worth pointing out that the flipside of this is the requirement to help others when they ask, especially when they lack the knowledge, skills, or equipment that you have--and she's always proven willing to do that. One reason I always try to give a hand whenever someone's got a computer problem: I figure given the help I've received getting this far, I owe the universe a few resurrections from the Blue Screen of Death...
