cedar_grove | Man's absolute gross inhumanity to man.

I went to my former school today, one of their teachers was out with an angina attack and I got called at 9am to go and teach his class... that's not relevant. That's just background. As the children and I were coming in from lunchtime recess, I noticed that one of the monitors policing the staircase looked upset. I asked her if she were already, and though she had tears in her eyes, she said she was. She also seemed happier because someone had bothered to care enough to ask.

It doesn't cost much... to ask if someone is all right. To help someone you know is in need of help at a particular time, no matter what your connection, or lack of connection with them. I was nothing to do with that particular child on the staircase. I was not covering for the teacher of her class, I was not a friend, parent - the only connection I can claim is that I as a teacher that was at the same school that day. I'm glad I asked, I'm glad I made a difference, however small... and I know I shall seek her out tomorrow, when I go back to cover for the same teacher as today, just to make sure that there is nothing that she needs. Just to make sure she's all right.

It sickens me with sadness sometimes that there are people who are not at all like this... that in fact a lot of, maybe most, people are not like that. That people can be too egocentric, wrapped up in their own needs, their own desires that they don't give a tinker's cuss for anyone else - even when they can see that another person is in a position to need help... hell, even when they're told they do.

It brings to mind a couple of occasions, at poles from each other in my personal experience. The first was when I had seen something that had upset me terribly, and I had to go from that event, across the city, to get to my cousin's house. To help you understand - to make this journey, I had to take two busses. One bus into the centre of the city, and another bus out. The whole of the way, all through the journey, I was in tears, and not /one/ person - not even the damned bus driver asked if I was all right... if I needed help. It made me despair of mankind as a whole.

The second experience was the direct opposite... I was on my way to a friend's house, where I was going to spend the day. I had very recently had abdominal surgery. I tripped on a paving stone and fell down - which of course hurt - a lot. But I tried very hard not to cry, to pick myself up, in spite of the pain, and as I was, I felt a hand under my arm. I looked up at a tiny, grey haired old lady, balancing on one walking stick, the other tucked under her arm as she tried to help me to my feet, in spite of her own obvious frailty. I was moved by this... especially with the first occasion in my memory.

Sadly, I don't know many people like the lady in the second experience. I can probably count them on the fingers of one hand and still have fingers to spare. There are people I know that will claim that they are this way - but even more sadly, their actions, their thoughtlessness, their selfishness proves otherwise. Those kind of people make me feel very sad.

Spare a thought for others around you... those you know; those you don't know. Those you care about and those you don't. Harder still, those with whom you think you have some kind of axe to grind. In the big picture, you can be sure that your grievances mean little. Please be someone who cares, and not someone who could care less. (couldn't care less - if you're English). Love.

(Okay, Sermon over)
BB
ILLTT
Eirian