My chest is where the heart is

[penfield]

"Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses."
- Molière


J. and I were playing our usual game of one-upmanship this evening (i.e., "who's better at loading the dishwasher?" or "who's smellier"). Tonight's topic: who's more charitable?

We were talking about formal charity, for the truly needy -- not casual day-to-day charity like telling your friend she doesn't look fat in those jeans.

She started out with a leg up on me. She's volunteered for the Red Cross, counseled teens in crisis, worked with mentally disabled individuals and raised $3,000 (and ran 26.2 miles) for AIDS research. A month ago she helped to refurbish a dilapidated school in an underserved urban community.

My contributions were either purely financial -- monetary contributions to marathons, walk-a-thons, cure-a-thons, raise-a-thons, bloated non-profit bureaucr-a-thons -- or dated back to my years in one of the University of Rochester's dorkier fraternities.

But then I pulled my trump card: according to the upper-left hand corner of my Virginia state driver's license, I am an organ donor. Game, set, match, I win. Nothing is more charitable than the willingness to give away vital body parts, the Gift of Life. It might as well say "TICKET TO HEAVEN: ADMIT ONE" on the back.

J. doesn't think that this counts, though -- not because the invocation of donorhood prerequires my death and therefore negates any real sacrifice -- but because she thinks it is stupid. She firmly believes that an organ donor card implicitly authorizes medical personnel to delay or deny medical care in order to collect spare parts.

I'm pretty cynical, but even I cannot reconcile this notion with my worldview. For the sake of domestic detente, however, I will compromise: I'll consider her dating me as a display of charity, giving her the victory, if she'll admit that she can't load a dishwasher to save her life.

Comments

Spare parts

[jatchwa.livejournal.com]

J.'s view is a myth. A powerful one, but a myth nevertheless. If it were true -- G-d forbid -- the lawsuit would be unreal. Thankfully, hospitals don't get to choose like that. (And if they DID, what makes anyone think that well-insured white people like us wouldn't be the beneficiary of such biases as opposed to its victims?)

Also, offering up your organs after you can't possibly need them, well ... look, I'm an organ donor, too. I hope whatever's left of me can be put to use by someone who needs it. But I'm not sure it even counts as charity. Charity means sacrifice, doesn't it? And I'm not going to need my liver after I'm dead.

Does anyone want my appendix?

Re: Spare parts

[village-twins.livejournal.com]

Charity does not mean sacrifice.

Re: Spare parts

[enchanted-pants.livejournal.com]

for once, dl004d's critical curiosity works in my favor.

how charitable.