I have decided to give up my good deeds. Shopping for people. Taking them to hospital. Visiting them. Whiling time away for them. Doing jobs for them.<\/p>\n
I expect my reputation will change now. \u201cPublic benefactress\u201d somebody called me. \u201cWe love you for being so kind to others\u201d somebody else said and kissed me. One person actually gave me flowers for having helped a sick lady. And a lot more flattering things. People looked at me benevolently. \u201cWhat would the village do without you?\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t wear yourself out.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t do too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
People are kind and caring. It is true, they don\u2019t like to commit themselves. Words don\u2019t cost much.<\/p>\n
I think I shall give them a chance to acquire a good reputation, too. I shall call on them to actually do something. Nobody seems to have had that idea so far. I shall let them do my jobs, so that I can get on with more important things. Chasing around on other people\u2019s behalf is time-consuming and tiring. Why don\u2019t we take it in turns.
\nAnybody can do that.<\/p>\n
I approached New Friend first of all. I asked him to shop for Mr & Mrs Orms once a week. It wouldn\u2019t take more than an hour altogether. I gave him a few days to think it over. Then I rang him up for his answer. It was \u201cyes, but\u2026\u201d He is away quite a lot, he said, and it would be good to share the job with somebody. I suggested to approach a certain benevolent organization who might be helpful. He left it with me and we rang off. A few minutes later he rang back. I knew it was him before answering the telephone. He was obviously feeling bad about not having given a more positive answer. He suggested that he could ring the Vicar and leave the whole problem with him. Surely it was a vicar\u2019s job to attend to matters of this kind. I said the Vicar was a busy man. Why not try and find somebody ourselves. Not the Vicar then, he said, the Vicar\u2019s wife \u2013 she seemed a nice enough person. I told him that some people considered her a \u201cdangerous woman\u201d. \u201cOh, I like dangerous women,\u201d he said. \u201cNot the kind of danger you might like,\u201d I answered, \u201cgossip and so on\u2026\u201dOh dear,\u201d he said, \u201cperhaps I\u2019d better keep away from her.\u201d My thoughts had wandered from the Vicar to the Church and to the Churchwarden. Why not ask the Churchwarden? New Friend said, why not, \u201che\u2019s quite a jolly fellow, isn\u2019t he?\u201d New Friend\u2019s wife had known him, not he, New Friend. He wouldn\u2019t be one to contact the Churchwarden about this shopping business. However, he knew one Miss Soandso, a retired teacher with a car. Maybe that she\u2026
\nNew Friend hesitated. I said: \u201cThere you are. It\u2019s an unpleasant job asking people to help. We don\u2019t like making a nuisance of ourselves.\u201d New .Friend answered \u201cI leave it with you. Let me know how you\u2019re getting on. By the way \u2013 would you love me for helping others?\u201d I had told him what sort of comment I had received concerning my activities\u2026<\/p>\n
I imagine people will change their minds when I stop doing good deeds\u2026<\/p>\n
Anyway, I have approached the above mentioned charitable organization, the professional people, who received me in a warm and non-committal way and am now waiting for them to let me know whether they can do something for me.
\nMy husband was pleased to hear that I was giving up chasing around for other people. What would I do with the time and energy saved? He turned to the children expectantly. We were having our evening meal, the usual simple meal. I thought I\u2019d filled them all up, when the question came \u201cWhat\u2019s for pudding?\u201d I didn\u2019t have one.
\nJust like \u201cgood deeds\u201d, I told them. My husband sighed, saying he didn\u2019t suppose there were more puddings for them now that I had more time\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have decided to give up my good deeds. Shopping for people. Taking them to hospital. Visiting them. Whiling time away for them. Doing jobs for them. I expect my reputation will change now. \u201cPublic benefactress\u201d somebody called me. \u201cWe love you for being so kind to others\u201d somebody else said and kissed me. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-aloud"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}