Crippled, I was seated in a powered shopping basket in a grocery store.
While I waited at a checkout stand, the store clerk checked out the groceries of the man before me. I had never met this man (let’s call him William). When I painfully struggled to stand up to place my groceries on the checkout belt, William, turned to me and asked if he could help me.
“Yes, please. Thank you very much.”
The clerk said to me, when he finished checking out William’s groceries that William wanted to pay for my groceries. This unexpected gift was from a man I had never met.
“Yes, thank you very much!”
I thought about that incident. My background includes 70 years in the education field.
A friend informed me of a recent incident that took place in the local system. The information I received was that there is some bullying going on in school. Where and when I was not informed. But, the door was opened for students to express and share their thoughts on how to stop the bulling by writing notes and fastening them to a wall. My friend commented on the maturity of the responses and the awareness of the respondents of positive and healthy relationships with fellow students.
We can all be proud of these students and continue to encourage, both at home and at school, the students’ continued demonstration by word and deed of further awareness of human relationships beneficial to all.
Other incidents include the wonderful courtesy and helpfulness of our librarians working and serving in our local library system. Some, watching and analyzing my choices of library materials, select items they feel would be of interest to me. Their relationship with children and their assisting children with many services bespeaks their sincere interest in giving service.
The most noble station individual can attain to is that of “servant,” far transcending, political and business related titles.
Further, many of our school-teaching staff emphasize, in their daily class rooms, helping young people find the truth about themselves and their relationships to themselves, and relationships to their neighbors instead of obscuring the truth with seductive, civilization destroying “Learn to Earn.”
Our friendly bus drivers- and many other-
Friendly William and others have transcended above those seductive profit-motive depths to a far nobler motive, that of service, helping individuals. Peace, not wars, comes from people helping people. Wars and rampant injustice come from green and power lusts. (6,000 years of recorded history of continuous wars). Such a simple lesson that everyone, even a 6-year old children can learn, if allowed to.
Thankfully, there is an increasing number of observable local individuals who have grasped that marvelous truth, the real joy in life does not come from getting but in giving.
A famous gentleman said, about 2000 years ago “It is better to give than it is to receive.” What could “better” mean? Was he giving good or poor advice? Genuine wisdom from the one who made us all?
Living here in Douglas and Juneau with the increasing numbers of people who daily are inspired to practice service motive makes for joyous moments. Added to is a greater understanding of our true relationship with self and fellow man.
Steps we can all take to universal peace?
Many, many thanks to those blessed service-motivated souls.
Jonathan Reynolds
Juneau