Shopping for the Pampers

It flashed across the TV screen while I was working out at the gym: a Pampers’ commercial. Of course, ordinarily a diapers commercial wouldn’t interest me – why should it? Seriously, it’s one of the last things on my mind. But it still caught my attention, and I looked up at it.

A woman gently sang “Happy Birthday” while a mother was shown cradling her small cooing baby. At the end, the commercial announced that every time a package of Pampers was bought, a vaccine/shot would be given to save one baby’s life somewhere around the world.

Okay, so what’s extraordinary about that? Pampers is trying to help – to support a good cause – while promoting themselves. But, what if not enough Pampers were bought to save some of the babies? What if there wasn’t enough money to go around (from different organizations as well) to save all of them? Would Pampers refuse to help? Could they refuse to help? In the extreme sense, would they let a child die because not enough Pampers were sold? I understand they’re helping to raise money for this, but do they ever refuse to save life because of money – money they have, but not particularly set aside for this cause?

Because I don’t think I could ever refuse someone who pleaded for a vaccine to help save their baby’s life. I just couldn’t – I think life, I think a person, is so much more important than money. I know that I’d probably be bankrupt with that attitude if I lived in poorer country – but wouldn’t it almost be worth it? How can someone see a mother watch her baby die, while knowing she couldn’t save what was most important to her?

And it’s amazing – the money needed for something like a vaccine must be so small. How else could a company say that purchasing diapers is also purchasing a vaccine? So how come there isn’t enough money for something so cheap? Usually people feel for people, usually people want to help & give. So why isn’t there enough? And I think it’s because people can become numb.

We see people die on the other side of the world – so what? We can’t fix that, it isn’t necessarily our problem. We see people begging for money on the city streets, but that really isn’t our problem – what if they use the money for drugs? What if we gave away all our money – we couldn’t, could we? So what’s the point to give, and just be asked for more and more? We might hear friends wanting to borrow money because they say they need food, but they never pay you back. Do you really want to keep going on like that?

And that – that is becoming numb. It’s not feeling for others, because they’re just someone we’ve already seen before. It's not fixing a problem, because we know we can't fix the whole of it. But we can help fix things – we can help others. And we know we can’t save everyone, but we know we can save some. We may not succeed, but we can always try.

As for me, sometimes I just want to give someone everything I have freely – my heart to someone - when they haven’t even asked for it. I just feel for people, I don’t want them to not have enough money for basic needs, because money is really nothing compared to life, nothing compared to family & friends, nothing compared to love. And sometimes I feel like I die in a way when I can’t help someone who really needs it. Maybe someday that attitude will get me into trouble – but wouldn’t it almost worth it? To be poor in money, but rich in happiness.

{feel free to comment!}