Of Snakes and Earthquakes...Helping Haiti

How we deal with the challenges in this world helps to determine what kind of person we are. When everything is going along as expected, life is easy. We can breeze through our days without so much as a second thought. For a while, most of us can get away with that. The universe, though, has a way of setting everything into balance.

When I was young, we didn't have indoor plumbing. One of the realities of this was that I would have to help my parents pack water from a little stream around the hill from our house. I would walk through the woods on a little path that ran from our house to the stream.

Now, I knew that path really well because we packed a LOT of water. I would just wander through the woods, hopping on rocks and kicking leaves, because I had done it several times before. I didn't really think about any hidden dangers.

Well, one day, we were walking around to get some water, and I was doing my usual "I'm playing in the woods and not paying attention" dance. All of a sudden the biggest snake I had ever seen in my life darted out from between some rocks that I was standing on. It may have been the shock of seeing that snake unexpectedly or it may have been that I was just a kid...but that snake looked like it was big enough to swallow me whole! This was years before that Anaconda movie!

So what happened? Did I give up and run crying back home? Did I just freeze on that rock and not move? Well...yeah, I froze for a second or two. And then, I realized that the woods weren't that safe to just be mindlessly wandering around in. There are hidden dangers! Now truth be told, that snake was probably more afraid of me than I was of it. But, it did make me more aware of the dangers in the woods. I was more aware of my surroundings.

But...I knew that we had to get water. I couldn't just quit. I had to keep going. So, I did. I was just more careful. Now did this mean that I was never careless anymore? Of course not! Human nature is weird that way. We get careless. It is almost like we need that "snake in the woods" to come into our lives every now and then to scare us back on the right path....doesn't it?

Right now, there is a major catastrophe going on in Haiti. The earthquake that happened on January 12th has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and even more injured. People are homeless. People do not have the basic necessities of life such as food, water, clothing, or medical care. This is a true tragedy...a world tragedy.

Now some people might say that we shouldn't even bother helping Haiti. Their government is corrupt and the money that is flowing over there will probably end up in the pockets of government officials. Other people might ask the question, "What did Haiti ever do for us?" It is true that Haiti seems like a small, insignificant country that we can choose to ignore if we wish. It doesn't have power and influence in the world economy.

Other people might point out that we shouldn't be bothering with Haiti right now because we have problems of our own right here in America. Don't we have poverty? Don't we have homelessness? Don't we have people who can't afford medical care? If we have all of these things here in America, why bother with Haiti? Let's take care of our own.

But...let's think again. These are people....people (whether some in our world want to acknowledge it or not) who are just like us. They are people who had lives. They are people who had families. They are people who had plans for the future.

A child crying over her lost parents doesn't care about race. She doesn't care about politics. She sure doesn't care about the world economy. But if a warm blanket and some clean water can help in some small way, shouldn't we try to get her that? In comparison, I'm sure that she would rather have her parents back and not have to rely on world charity...but the reality of things makes that an impossibility. The world happens. We can choose to react...or we can remain frozen in place.

I would hope that we, as a human race, can overlook country borders....can overlook race.....can overlook politics. These things seem to just muddy the waters of common sense and common decency. When people are hurting, we should do what we can to help. Does this mean that we are forgetting our own problems at home? No....it does not. What it does mean is that we are broadening our view of humanity. What makes us different from the beasts of the field is our ability to have compassion for our fellow man. We need to do what we can...however small it may be...to help in any way that we can.

Just like that snake in the woods that made me stop and think, this earthquake has brought (once again) a sense of chaos to the world. Things aren't always going to go as expected. Yes...sometimes there are monsters underneath the bed! But we can work together to help bring a little order to the world. We can do what we just know....deep down inside...is the right thing to do. And we don't need celebrities on television to tell us this. We don't need anyone telling us what to do in this situation. We already know what to do. And hopefully we are doing it.

Until next week...class dismissed!