Who am I? It wouldn't seem like that should be a tough question to answer, but how many of you have looked in the mirror and wondered that very thing? I guess that quite a few have done just that.
We all hope to be successful in our careers, happy in a relationship, and loving as parents. But that doesn't describe who we are inside. Are you really a good person when it counts the most?
It only takes a few minutes to go out in the world to find people having trouble, and you merely have to open your eyes to the real sights are around you. From the woman at the grocery store who has a sad look in her eyes as she counts change and removes things from her cart, did you see her?
Did you notice the woman with that pained expression with every step she takes or the elderly man barely able to walk, did you see them? Have you seen those people who see families and cry because there own family isn't here any longer? Have you seen the pain from a wife as she stands at her husband's grave? A child when they have no one?
Have you seen the difficulties a family has when illness strikes? Have you seen the family who deals with the loss of a home? Do you know if your neighbors or your friends have enough to eat? Are they lying awake at night in fear because they may lose their homes? Do you know?
What would you do if someone asked for your help?
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| What do you do? Do you walk by with blinders? |
Hopefully, I will always do my best to help.
It was the year 1980, Lynn and I were just freshly married kids. He was still 16, and I was a naive 18. Our home was situated next to an old highway that saw a lot of traffic from kids on the weekends and was also the location the highway department mixed their asphalt.
That Friday night we were watching a movie as we usually did. Being a young married couple meant we were close to our money. It was about 2 in the morning when a knock on our door broke the sounds of our movie. I went to see who it was because in 1980 it was relatively safe for me to do that.
I opened it to find a girl; she looked about 16, and her clothes were ripped covered in blood. She had blood running down her face, and she was shaking in pain. Grabbing a blanket, I wrapped her up and tried to get her to talk to me.
After moments of difficulty she got us to understand she had been in a car accident and there were others. I only remember Lynn and I running up the road to find the wreck. There was one boy lying in the ditch, and I did what I could for him, but the second one was lying on the train tracks. He was hurt the worse.
We didn't know what to do; we only knew we shouldn't move the one on the tracks. So I ran back home to call an ambulance.
With the arrival of the ambulance, we were informed that they needed parental permission, or at least an adult to stand responsible for the injured kids. I made phone calls to the bar where they said one boy's dad was on a date with the girl's mom. But they refused to come; they didn't want to be disturbed.
What would I do? None of us could be considered adults in this situation. So I did the only thing I knew how. I called Mama. They didn't say one word, they just came. Mama and Daddy got up in the middle of the night and rushed to stand responsible for kids that weren't theirs. For kids, they didn't know.
That was the parents I had. That was the way they taught me to care for the rest of the world.
What would you have done? Would you have done what they did? I hope in the same situation I would stand up for the example they left.
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