Imagine driving along the road, mistakenly thinking you can drive through the water that is running across it, and having your car suddenly swept off the road by floodwaters and into a creek 200 yards away. You hope someone notices what happened but you’re afraid it isn’t until you fail to show up at work that people will notice you are missing…
Or perhaps you are stranded in your village, homeless, having fled to higher ground, because floodwaters have destroyed the local bridge or washed out the only road to the outside world. Friends or relatives have been missing for three days, victims of mudslides or housing collapses, and you strain to hear the helicopters that are supposed to drop food in your vicinity. And then you find out there is more heavy rain predicted in the near future and the local authorities have declared a state of emergency. You see devastation everywhere…
Or imagine being that young mother, watching as your husband tries to cross the swollen river with your child, and in horror you see them pulled under. You think there is nothing you can do, and you are so afraid. Then you notice people nearby who might help…
Or maybe you are watching TV and see how a levee has broken, causing a city’s downtown streets to be flooded…hundreds of city blocks (a 150-year-old record). You watch as rescuers in boats pick up the stranded people who are clinging to rooftops. You know garbage, waste and bacteria are probably floating everywhere. You watch in horror, as one person clinging to a tree appears unable to hold on any longer…
What if that was you in any one of those scenarios (or a scenario involving earthquake, fire, volcanic eruption, landslide, avalanche, tsunami, tornado, blizzard, drought, hailstorm, heat wave, famine, epidemic…) waiting for help to come…if it wasn’t already too late.
How would you feel?
Shock? Numbness? Nausea? Fatigue? –And then the recovery headaches.
Disaster, death, and heartache happen all the time, somewhere. Are we connected across the world through tragedy, forming a picture of a grieving population? Or are we connected through stories and mutual feelings of compassion? It’s your choice.
For some, the above scenarios bring tragedy closer to home because they came face-to-face with it…for others it remains something that happened and will happen, “over there”…
Perhaps we can all volunteer our time, or our money, or our expertise…something…to help when tragedy strikes closer to home, and also extend our assistance to those in need further away. And we can certainly try to prepare for what might befall us, without being consumed by fear, and still be able to appreciate and live our life.
Again, what if it was you in any of those scenarios!
“At first I didn’t think anything this bad would ever happen to me or those I love, but then I got nervous. I heard the levees had burst [or the fire was getting closer, or…] …”
Let’s face it…there are people all around us who need our compassion, our thoughts, our prayers and our assistance…and perhaps one day you might need the same from others.
Give what you can. Help where you can. Imagine a world where everyone helped each other.
In another Blog I’ll share how you can help to make this world a better place by contributing to the people you meet every day.
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
Read an excerpt now
TV Shows and Clips about the Death of Cindy James