In the last few days, the weather has been particularly bad, especially when you think about the past few years and the amount of snow we’ve had.  But, through it all, I have both given and received words and deeds of assistance in many ways.  Family, friends, and neighbors have all pitched in to try to help keep our feet on the ground and our vehicles on the roads, whenever possible.

And this doesn’t stop at the edge of Rochelle.  It seems like we have these good deeds everywhere a crisis threatens.  Whether it is floods, tornadoes, high wind damage, or snow events.  Weather occurrences aren’t the only times we have this sharing of our lives and talents.  It could be accidents, whether on the road or in the house.  It could be mass murder incidents, but over and over there are those that come to the aid of others.

Are these people heroes?  You bet.  Are they behaving in a way that is above and beyond their normal life obligations?  No question.  They can even be videotaping something improper that is happening during the passing of a normal day as evidence for those that need it.  Though they may not be able to get involved physically in the incident, there is still no doubt that they are a part of this group.

These good samaritans usually have no time to determine what they should do or what they can do.  They just jump in to help in any way possible.  They don’t worry about color or ethnicity.  They don’t think about where they are or who is around them.  It’s just their nature to help.  Thankfully it is more likely limited, but some of these people are sued and others are threatened.  Like whistleblowers who know that these things will happen but are more concerned about you and me than themselves.

So, what are these people made of?  Why are they so eager to help?  Can they even stand back and watch rather than leaping in?  In my thinking, this is how we are born.  Innocent, loving, dependent on mom and dad.  Yet deep down inside, there is a soul that knows that we must be good to others.  We must help others.  We must NOT reject anyone.  In other words, we are all in this passage of time together.  We must help others when we can to complete their journey lest we lose sight of ours.

Why else would we be here?  To make the most money possible?  Does that really make us happy?  I see millionaires and billionaires who give money to charity.  If that next charity for them were the best use of their money, but that money was running out, would they still part with it?

Could we have been born to think only of ourselves and not of others?  If so, not everyone would complete their journeys.  Is this a good thing?  Keep in mind that our journey is no more than to be born, live, then die.  Is it a good thing to let thousands die young during their journeys?  Does this even affect us?  What if they were a single wife or husband, or a wife and husband that passed, who had three young children?  Now those children are dependent on the rest of us to do what’s right for them.  What if they are very rich, were good benefactors, but had beneficiaries that didn’t feel the same way?

I’m sure you can run through other scenarios yourself, so let’s try to think of another reason we are here.  There are givers and takers.  Each one of us is one or the other.  So, are we here strictly to be one of these types of people?  But I left off a certain type of person.  Sharers are both givers and takers.  In the best world, they give as much, or more than, they take.  In assisting others to proceed in their journeys, they may take help from others to proceed on their own.  So, are we here only to be givers, takers, or sharers?

If this is true, then there will always be those people who are fine that there are the abandoned, poor, middle-class (if they aren’t too eager), among us.  Then there are the obscenely rich.  There will always be those people that are glad to give breaks to the rich, so they have more and then take from others to compensate for the exchange.  There will always be those that are fine with war, whether it’s real or expected like the cold war, to keep themselves or their country on the heavier side of the scale.  As far as war is concerned, these comments are not to be confused with those that are trying to help similar thinking people to overcome enemies.  These enemies trying to overpower them to tip the scales.

If we learn, while growing up, to be the takers or unfair sharers, then our true abilities as a human race will never see the light.  If we undergo every challenge as if it were a race, will we ever obtain an achievement that’s the very best we can do?   The race to the moon, the race to Mars, the race to build the best airplane, the race to build the best automobile.  Did we really do our very best the first time?  What if we were all givers and worked together internationally?  As a world power, we’d be inhabiting the moon.  We’d be on Mars.  We would have a supersonic jet for everyday travel.  Our cars would all be electric, but they would go as far as, and do as much as present day gas vehicles.  Maybe, just maybe, we’d also have tackled and won against global warming.  Our weather, which causes so much heartache, would just be the normal everyday routines of Mother Nature.

Maybe we could truly change the whole world for the better.