May 10 2012
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“ In a society like ours, to offer help is always to run the risk of offending the persons being helped by implying that they are weak and inadequate. For the same reasons, most of us likely find it difficult to receive help, preferring instead to handle matters “on our own,” lest we be perceived as weak. I believe that it is telling that most of us are quite willing to admit our dependence on certain kinds of technologies and conveniences (“I simply couldn’t live without my microwave or my cell phone”), while we have become increasingly reluctant to admit that we need one another.
— Philip D. Kenneson, Life on the Vine, pg. 138
