I was going to post today about how fat I'm getting but you never know when an ex-boyfriend or that gal who bullied you in high school is going to read your blog, so I decided to post about something else today.

Nigeria. Specifically Nigerian email fraud scammy things, because I'm sure Nigeria itself is quite lovely.

You know how ridiculous those emails are? Someone promising you vast sums of money if you give them your bank account number and whatnot? Riiiight. Not terribly believable stuff, though I'm sure they've sucked in their fair share of victims.

I know of this lady though, a very lonely and unloved feeling lady whose been in contact with some of these scammers. And they've been sweet to her. Increasingly sweet over the months to the point of, umm...I try to keep this blog G-Rated so let's leave it at that. Anyway, there's this one man she's in touch with who sends her rather graphic emails, full of promises. And he knows that she is a poor old woman, half blind, living on income assistance. He knows she has almost nothing, and he is taking from her anyway.

She is sending him money. She knows it's probably a scam, but she's sending it to him anyway, because he makes her feel good and she doesn't want his emails to stop.

It makes me want to weep, that she is in such desperate need to feel loved, and that he is so evil a man as to take advantage of the fact. Yes, I said evil, and I do mean it. And I know that he is only one of the many human beings on the earth who is doing cruel and horrible things to other people. I know that there are even worse things going on in this world, and my heart hurts to the point I can physically feel it when I think about such things.

But I figure that I can either give into the despair that threatens to overwhelm me or I can fight it. That man who is taking advantage of that poor woman is just one man. And I am one woman. What can I do to counter the effect he is having on the world? What good and loving acts of service and caring can I perform to introduce as much hope as he has introduced despair?

This? This is a kind of math that I can wrap my head around.

I'm not much for issuing challenges to my readers, mostly because I tend to ignore such challenges issued to me (I'll be a good person when I feel like it, okay?!), but I feel moved to say something to that effect today.

So I challenge you to take just a wee bit of time to think about what good you can do. What is there of love and hope you can add to the world that otherwise would not have been?

Tags: fighting despair, making a difference, being positive

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