Compassion-Action

Recently, a toddler in China was hit by a car, twice, and 18 pedestrians walked past her without coming to her aid. The little girl later died in hospital. Many Chinese are now wringing their hands, wondering what became of their moral compass and the imperative to 'help thy neighbour'.

Last week, I visited my mother in Montreal. My Mum will be 90 years old on Christmas Eve this year and she is still living the high life - cigarettes, rum and coke and chocolate all keep her going. We were chatting about the awful event in China and that got us talking about kindness or a glaring lack of compassion that people had shown our family over the years. In 1972, my Dad had the first of three strokes that would rob him of movement in his right side as well as his speech. "Nothing like a catastrophe to show you who you friends are", my Mum used to say. Some of my father's best friends never came to visit. Perhaps they were afraid of my Dad's silence, or of the fact that he embodied illness and possibly mortality. But others did come. One of those was a short, slight gentleman called Bernie Yorgan. Bernie was more of a golfing acquaintance - he was a bachelor, possibly gay, very gentle and unassuming. Bernie arrived one day at our door with a gigantic leather case - it contained a cello. Bernie played his cello for my Dad in our living room quite often. Sometimes Dad closed his eyes and even fell asleep, but Bernie took that as a compliment.

Our neighbours down the street were not really friends at all. We knew them to say Hello, but nothing more. One day, after Dad's second stroke, our neighbour rang our doorbell. He offered to build a ramp for my Dad's wheelchair. His wife offered to clean our house. We didn't have much money in those days and my Mum thanked them for their kindness, but said that we couldn't afford their services. The ramp was installed and the house was cleaned after the couple convinced my mother that they could not possibly accept any money for their gifts.

In this blog, I want to talk about the triggers that compel us to compassionate action and those circumstances that cause us to look away or avoid stepping into the breach of helpfulness. But for now, I want to reminisce and tell stories of what has been most helpful to people in times of pain and trouble. What is your story?