Lesson #10

Lesson #10: Don't wait for a tragedy to start coming together...

Photo Credit: Associated Press

We all know the devastation and destruction that this week's storm brought. Lives were lost, homes were destroyed and a community was left with scraps of the lives they had formerly lived. And yet there were glimmers of hope to be seen through it all. Many of the stories and interviews from the tragedy have actually warmed my heart.

How could it be that such a horrific event could ever give me the feeling of having a warmed heart? 

I saw people helping each other without giving it a second thought. I heard interviews with people who laid there life down so that another might live. I saw people coming from miles around just to lend a helping hand or be there to do whatever was needed of them. To ease the burden, to carry the load. 

Why is it that in these tragic times we are able to put our differences aside and come together for one another? Why does it take a state of disaster to wash away our internal voices of prejudice, bigotry and selfishness? 

One thing I have observed that seems to be happening more and more these days is people isolating themselves on one "side" or another. They aren't with "those people", they are with "their people" and it becomes a war pitting one "side" against another. 

It doesn't have to be that way. 

I know, I know...it is wishful thinking that we can all come together and love each other right now (thank you Beatles...) but, then again, is it really that far out to want to have an amicable and cooperative community in which we live? 

As a teacher, I spend a lot of time teaching about sharing, cooperating and encouraging one another, despite differences in skill, language, ability, color, nationality, or aptitude. We all have a similar goal which is to become a better person each and every day, to improve, to hone our skills, and to help one another along this road of life. To carry some of the burden when we can so that we all make it to our destination. 

I encourage you to stop and think about divisiveness and the true destruction that it causes. It shouldn't take an act of God to make people come together for one another. 

Enjoy the community you live in. Realize that these people are your neighbors - they live with you. Get to know them. Help them. Understand them. Respect them. 

Live. Love. Serve.

Photo Credit: Paul Hellstern- The Oklahoman/AP Photo

Photo Credit: Joshua LOTT/ AFP/ Getty Images

Photo Credit: Paul Hellstern- The Oklahoman/AP Photo

Photo Credit: Bryan Terry/ The Oklahoman/ AP Photo

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But...the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” - Martin Luther King, Jr.