I will, from this day strive to forge togetherness out of our differences. -Josefa Iloilo (1920-), President of Fiji from 2000-2009; known for not interfering in political disputes but reaching out to disaffected factions.
Do you see it? It’s happening right in front of you every day right now? It’s the most incredible triage unit you’ve ever seen. It’s not in a building, it’s in the middle of a country. In the middle of chaos it’s gelling. Coming together faster than a magnet to metal. It matters not what’s in the way either. Language or culture barrier; economic differences; status gaps; all irrelevant!
What am I talking about? Haiti! A natural disaster that has left an already struggling nation completely decimated. An unexplainable natural disaster that displayed no prejudice in its ire. Leaving children parentless, elderly wandering and everybody heart-broken and confused. Why? How? The questions abound as we all try to make sense of it; but you can see one clear theme…action!
Nations are rallying. People that only days before were divided by the nonsense of political affiliations, religious differences and just old fashioned prejudices are bonding. Three former Presidents of the United States gathering to brainstorm on how best to help. Celebrities doing a telethon to raise money. Average Joe and Jane texting 10 bucks to a country they have never been to before and know nothing about. Israeli and French search teams digging through rubble into the night in a frantic pace just to save even one more life. Anybody with a TV is riveted and compelled by the stories of the missing and dead.
Why? Why is it that such a disastrous event can do this? Why does mass suffering serve as the only real smelling salt that wakes everybody up out of the coma? All of a sudden the economic “crisis” seems like a blip on the radar. All the whining about what Wall Street has done with our money and all the greed as we crush each other just to buy the latest and greatest just seems like silly child’s play. You know why? Because it is!
You see that urge you might be feeling to jump on a plane and go to Haiti to start helping is real. It’s that passion we have in all of us to simply help each other that clicks into action as soon as something like this happens. The reason that all walks of life jump on to help is because the assault comes from the unknown and the random that always lurks about our fragile existence. We know it’s there but we never name it.
Ask the Mayans; they believe the big one is right around the corner in 2012. Whether it is or isn’t is irrelevant. It might as well be today, because we need a real wake up call. We need a collective slap, because we are much better than the way we behave. You’re seeing it live on TV. You’re feeling it in your heart and it’s compelling you. Deep inside our own mortality is perhaps one of our greatest fears and when we see it cast upon our fellow humans we cringe and we rise up with a strange adrenaline that’s powered by a passionate love that knows no boundaries and is never limited by embarrassment.
It will be a while, but we know what happens as time marches on. We will forget. We will no longer feel the fresh wound. We will jump back off the band wagon and retreat to our routine and go back to scratching out our own piece of the pie. Back to filling our own tree with nuts so that we can make it through another year. Back to that safe place where strangers become just that again until the next time the world seems to be falling off of it’s axis.
Why does this have to be the case? Why can’t we stay in this helpful mode? Can you imagine what would really happen if we kept all these rafts tied together? What if all the former Presidents were part of an inner circle of advisers to the current one? What if the French and Israeli search teams were always on call together, constantly sharing new techniques and making greater distinctions? What if all the doctors could share their research and make the tiniest of improvements faster? What if all this aid to Haiti and other underdeveloped countries continued to arrive and was actually used for the right stuff? Schools, buildings, books, food, clean water?
Do you ever wonder is there really is a higher power looking down upon us and wondering when will we finally take all these clues and make the best of them; the same way you might look at a child and hope that they finally get it. The truth is that this opportunity is around us each and every day. It’s in our families, our friendships our businesses. It’s everywhere there are other people. So what should we do about it?
Stop isolating ourselves. Stop trying to gain at the expense of others so that we can upgrade and look back down the ladder at the rest. When you really think about it, it’s silly. If you lived in Haiti right now, what would you be looking for? Water? Food? Shelter? Medical Help? Clothes? Somebody to talk with? Or would you be looking for a Mercedes? Gold? Stocks? Bonds? Now I’m not saying we should not focus on certain material necessities, I’m simply saying that the most valuable assets in life often fall out of perspective, but none more important that other people.
No matter what you say or think, you know that our bond with other people is one of the highest needs we all have. It’s well documented that those with a greater degree of isolation are more likely to take their own lives. Even the natural introverts feel better when forced into the presence of others. So let’s just accept it and start tying our rafts together. We don’t have to do it with everybody, but we can start with at least somebody. There is absolutely no argument against the statement that none of us is greater than all of us!
Tags: Inspiration, Josefa Iloilo, Motivation, Self Help, Self Improvement
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