30 May 2021

There were two articles in paper this morning that caught my attention.

The first related to a celebrity function to raise money for charity. Two chartered plane loads of the rich and famous were flown to one of our south west towns, moved (by luxury coaches, of course) to a famous winery owned by another rich and famous person, where they were treated to a bang up three course meal, complete with all the very best wine, treated to a performance by famous Australian artists, and then travelled back to the city via the same means.

These rich and famous philanthropists managed to raise around $3.5m for the particular charity, which was, of course, greatly appreciated. And there were lots of photos of the rich and famous enjoying their little jaunt to the Margaret River region. In style.

The second article was about a woman’s recovery from a violent assault, suffering long and hard to overcome their horrific injuries. The article detailed the efforts of her family who stood beside her, the hope, resilience – and a lot of medical intervention – that was needed to give her back her life. The interview with this woman and her family was conducted by another woman who has a lot of experience with resilience – as a child following a car accident she suffered third-degree burns to 85% of her body and was hospitalised for several weeks where she lost both feet, a number of fingers, and an ear. Only to be involved in another serious car accident a few years later.

It’s an interesting couple of situations, don’t you think?

I’m not belittling the rich and famous people. Some might have inherited their wealth, and some may have worked hard and long at great expense to themselves and their family to earn it. Not everyone lives the glitteringly happy lives that we imagine come with privilege. We know from a recently estranged member of the royal family that lives lived behind that glittering facade aren’t always what we imagine. Apparently.

I do wonder, however, how much it cost to run this wonderful fundraising event. Those chartered flights, luxury coach trips, champagne, wines, expensive meals and entertainment would not have all been donated. But maybe the rich and famous people would not have all come out for a bbq down by the beach. And it scored two pages of photos in the newspaper so we can all know how generous those rich and famous people are.

There were a couple of quotes that stood out – “A special delivery of cheeseburgers at the airport helped the weary but elated crowd in their way back home after the most spectacular social event this year”, and from the second – “Family is everything. All their love and support…I don’t know where I would be without them…. I’m so happy and grateful to be alive, and I’ll never take things for granted again. I’m here for a reason. I survived”.

Thank you to the rich philanthropists who gave up a day of their lives to contribute to a good cause.

But to the two young women who are putting their lives back together after major trauma – I hope you score an invite to the next spectacular social event. You’ve earned it.