Don't Fall In The Hole

Don’t Fall In The Hole

So first off there’s an old saying/story about jumping in a hole to help someone. That sometimes when someone is lost and in a dark place the best thing you can do is be there for them so they have your support when they have the strength to climb out.

This isn’t about that. I’m not saying “do not comfort your depressed friends”. This is a more tangible concern.

In the U.S. a hurricane recently tore through a few southern states causing property damage and loss of life. Around this time last year I posted “get yourself a chainsaw” to talk about preparing yourself for difficult times to come.

The natural following to “get yourself a chainsaw” is “get your neighbor a chainsaw”.

If you have the means i is a great thing to aid others in need, particularly if you can do so in a way where they won’t need your support in the future. Using your chainsaw to cut up the tree blocking your neighbor’s driveway is great. Giving them a chainsaw so they can do it themselves is better. “Teach a man to fish” and all that.

However one must be careful in their desire to aid others that they do not make maters worse for the effected. This is why major political figures often do not visit disaster areas while things are in processes as it pulls valuable resources away from helping people to protecting political figures.

In that same fashion if you go to help someone out of a hole and fall in, now you’ve created a situation where two people need rescuing instead of one. Your desire to help others in need is noble and the very definition of “humane” but we must be wise as well as kind.

I expect there will be more hurricanes, more floods and more disasters the world over. I expect that you will desire to help those in need and be seized with the energy to get out there and do something.

Good. use that energy, follow that urge to be human and temper it with wisdom.

Tie off the rope before you lower it into the hole so you can both climb out.

I hope in times to come, when you have the opportunity and the means to aid others you do so, with aheart full of kindness and a mind full of wisdom.

Thank you my dear readers and God bless;

~S. Wallace