Limited Sympathies

"Limited Sympathies" seemed to be the phrase of the weekend. I had limited sympathies for my husband who went to work despite being sick and did not leave early or go to the doctor as he said he would. In fact, I was actually angry at him for being sick and not taking care of himself because it led inevitably to him spending most of Sunday in bed. Sunday is our only day of the week that we have together and I resent when something gets in the way of that.

Limited sympathies were had for Zoë who could not behave well enough to get the balloon Grandma promised if she was good while we were super market shopping.

Limited sympathies were also had for my aunt who came to have Passover with us on Saturday night. The reasons are numerous and rather not worth going into.

Limited sympathies were also had for my aunt's friend who refuses to pay someone to assist her long-time, live-in (20 years) boyfriend who recently had a stroke. Instead, she is doing everything for him herself rather than spend the money on a home health aid or the like. Apparently, he does not have the money himself and she will not use her own money. They have been together for over 20 years and she can't spend some of her money on him? Believe me, I know it is expensive and difficult to hire someone like a home health aid, but based on my experience with my husband's parents I can see that it is worth it. Not only for the person in need of aid, but for the family who would normally have to give all the aid themselves on top of whatever other full-time responsibilities they already have.

Lastly, limited sympathies are had for the members of "Word of Mouth", the group of women writers who sent a open letter to Oprah Winfrey imploring her to re-instate recommending current authors in her bookclub. "The readers need you," the letter said. In truth, the writers need you -- to make their books bestsellers. Author Jennifer Weiner has plenty to say on this in her great blog Snarkspot -- of which I am a regular reader.