I hate it so much that the Western society has demonised the concepts of helping and asking for help.
We are all so scared and ashamed to ask for help that some of us would rather risk life/health/money/whatever is at risk than ask for help.
I myself am guilty of this too. I try my best to avoid help from people because I’m scared they are going to judge me or think less of me or use it as a future weapon to bargain something. Even when it comes to my family.
Why is it like that? And why, when people are in the position to help someone out, the first thing that comes to their mind is: “What’s in it for me?” Or “What do I earn from helping you?”
I don’t know, dude, just you know, you gain the fact that you did something nice for someone else, maybe a friend or a family member? You made a life easier, you have behaved like a decent, good human being as we are supposed to. Shouldn’t that be enough?
But no, we are so attached to money and any form of material interest that helping someone for the sake of it has become wild.
You know what? When you die, you can’t bring your money or objects with you but you can be remembered by all the people you helped out for being a great and good person, someone who was worthy.
This mindset is really damaging to disabled people especially but non-disabled people are affected too because you never know when you’ll need help for any kind of reason.
And no, the concept of help shouldn’t even come with the reasoning of “I’m helping people because maybe one day, when I’ll need it, they will help me”. You might be the luckiest person in the world and never need help, but you can still help others because that’s what makes us humans. No man is an island, said T.S. Eliot and I think he intended this too.
So, give a lift to your friend who needs to go somewhere, help them with groceries, ask them if they need help with daily tasks if you know they struggle. You can even give money to whom needs it if you are in a position to do so.
Don’t just think in terms of interest.