Cutesy tone notwithstanding, 50 Ways to Help a Chronically Ill Friend is a really fantastic list. Some of it's stuff you'll have heard from me already, but it always bears repeating.
I guess in the sense that only half of these make me want to kick the author, rather than the usual 3/4. But some of them (like #50, wtf) make me want to kick extra hard, so I think it evens out.
I feel like #50 started off right; they just needed to shut up sooner. But which other ones bothered you? #13 seemed problematic to me, but that may be because I hate Random Stuff, am pickier than most about purchases, and am really hard to fit for clothing. Many of my friends, on the other hand, love receiving random odds and ends and knicknacks. (And care packages DO make me happy; you just have to either know me astoundingly well or be willing to peruse my online wishlists.) #37 seemed like setting up something that would just cause more work later, especially if the recipient is not already a gardener. But otherwise I agree with the list, and three iffy points out of fifty is really good.
Speaking for myself and not for timprov, #48, for example, would make me homicidal. People already assume that I haven't done the research enough without having it an official way of being helpful. #11 also makes me stabby: I have plenty of purpose in life without it being Explainer To Other Gimps, and so do the other sick people I know.
Several of the others struck me as things that shouldn't be about chronic illness, they should be about basic civility to all people. Who talks to their friends about how long they took in the bathroom? People need to do what they need to do, and what, is a good conversation going to ensue about the dump they were taking, sick or not? Who doesn't check what time of day their friends are available? Who raised these people? Their mother. No, wait, that's a different post of yours....
(I am hyper-clarifier today: I don't mind talking to people about vertigo at all. I just don't like the "because it gives a purpose in life!" thing, which you did talk about with the cutesy tone mention.)
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Several of the others struck me as things that shouldn't be about chronic illness, they should be about basic civility to all people. Who talks to their friends about how long they took in the bathroom? People need to do what they need to do, and what, is a good conversation going to ensue about the dump they were taking, sick or not? Who doesn't check what time of day their friends are available? Who raised these people? Their mother. No, wait, that's a different post of yours....
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