Posted by pseudoname on February 9, 2006, at 15:52:51
"Help: the Original Human Dilemma" by Garret Keizer (2004) is a thoughtful stroll through ideas and conflicts about helping other people.
It turns out that helping is not necessarily an undiluted good. It can be a dicey business, and is very often more about the helper than the helpee.
The book is built around the the parable of the Good Samaritan, and Keizer really freshens up the perspectives on this over-used reference.
He also talks about his personal experiences with giving more help than he could afford, more help than was wanted, and less help than was effective. He talks about what "help" really means and what it means to be helpless. Keizer is some kind of ordained Christian minister, and he writes essays for Harper's Magazine.
One idea I thought pertinent to Babblers: Keizer suggests that to be effective in a helping profession, it's necessary for people to be able to keep in mind that people are (always) doing the best that they can. He suggests that people in helping professions use this as a rule of thumb to see if they are currently suited to their occupations: "If you can sustain the insight that people are doing the best they can—if you can maintain some faith that this *is* an insight—you're solid. If not, maybe you should pack it in."
I can't always believe that, but I can believe in it as a guideline.
I think it could be useful in some of the tense discussions on Babble, too: maybe some of those that end up as Admin debates, LOL. People are doing the best they can; if you can't believe it in a given discussion, maybe you should leave that thread for a while...
poster:pseudoname
thread:608011
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20051228/msgs/608011.html