Caring might mean skipping the newest Harry Potter movie or not buying a 3-D TV--HDTV is so ancient now--because our time is needed elsewhere or we don't have the energy to be interested.
Caring kills conversations. While we could be discussing who's wearing what or who's seeing who, and while we could be talking about what dad did now, we instead speak about our neighbor, our neighborhood, or someone else's neighborhood. And when those about whom we care belong to a questionable group, caring can start heated arguments some of which end friendships.
Caring adds to our already heavy workload. Caring can dump a 2nd or 3rd job on our laps, a job that is not only unpaid with horrendous hours and no benefits, it charges us by the hour while putting us under the supervision of unreasonable bosses.
Caring steals our time as we read and think about or travel to speak for those whom we will never meet. Such caring can cost us this year's dream vacation as those funds are spent elsewhere.
Caring can lead to depression when those for whom we care have no hope because power & wealth have become manic. Caring can cost us either our self-esteem as we are constantly ignored or even ridiculed or our job when we care for the wrong people.
Caring can lead to crime when one becomes desperate in getting the attention of society's players or the government whose only response is: "Talk to the hand."
And despite the fact that caring has so many hazards that the Surgeon General should put a warning label on it, everybody cares. Yes, they do! Some, however, have learned the secrets to caring and I am going to share them with you not for $100, not for $50, or not even for $19.95, but for FREE! What are the secrets that allow us to care with impunity? The first secret is to not care too much. That is right! All one has to do here is to say they care but add that maturity demands that they move on with life and be responsible for themselves.
The second secret that immunizes us from the diseases caused by caring is, just as one should not care too much, one should not care for too many. It is similar to Jack Byrnes' "circle of trust" from the movie Meet The Parents. Jack's circle was not disruptive because it was small for Jack only trusted those whom he could control. Likewise, if we limit the number of people we care for, while not forgetting the first secret, we can get away with caring.
So now that you know how to care without needing care, CARE ON! But be sure you follow the two secrets or you could become like the poor sap described below:
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
that we should look at him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face,
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows he carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53: 2-4,
and that's not all folks!
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