In the Event of an Emergency

I never blog anymore.  Like most of the world, I went the way of a different form of social media.  Namely Facebook and Instagram.  I think, at least for me, those appeal because they offer instant gratification in a sense.  Your posts will be "fed" to some of your friends and you're bound to get some sort of reaction.

Blogging isn't like that so much (unless you're a huge influencer with a following, which I'm not).  The rest of us boring folk just kind of throw stuff out there -- and maybe it'll be read.  Maybe it won't.  Maybe someone will comment.  Most likely not.  Especially if you only post once every 2 years or so.  Ha!

But I've had this on my mind and I want to share it.  But I don't want to use a platform where there is so much division.  Because it's just a simple observation.  So I thought I'd share my thoughts here.

So here goes.

Last weekend, my family was at Wal-Mart.  It had been a long day already, and I was really just running in to grab a few things plus some lunchables (the lunch of champions! Yeah right.  But sometimes, you just do what you gotta do for cheap) for my 4 hungry kids.  We had an hour drive home, so we kind of needed to feed them lunch. So I left my husband in the car with the kids while I went in.  I wasn't in there long.  Maybe 15 minutes.  As I was walking back to the van, I smelled a terrible smell and saw smoke from right behind my van.  And there was a lot of activity.  It turned out that a truck parked in the next parking lane had caught on fire.  I reached my van and saw my husband was no longer in it.  I assumed he was over at the truck, so I asked the kids about it when I got the van.  They said he'd run to get help.  But by this time -- and it was happening while I was approaching my van -- someone with a fire extinguisher in their vehicle had come to the rescue and put out the fire. My husband finally made it back with a fire extinguisher he'd purchased, but by that point it wasn't needed.  The fire was accidental (as most are).  And thankfully nobody was hurt.  The truck, of course, was a total loss.  The whole dashboard had melted.  

 But I share all that to say this:

The truck that caught on fire?  There were all sorts of stickers and such on it that left zero question as to where this man's political viewpoints were aligned. 

 But you know what?  Not a single person who was there trying to help him (and there were several in addition to the man who had a fire extinguisher handy and my husband) stopped to comment on it.  Or ask him about it.  Or decide to walk away because of it.  

They saw a human in a terrible moment.  A dangerous moment.  An emergency.  And they stepped up to do what they could.  They helped him.  One person helping another person.  Regardless of political opinion.  It's not a novel concept.  Once upon a time, that would seem like a "duh" moment.  And maybe it still is.  But the divisiveness we see everywhere sometimes makes me wonder.  But maybe, ultimately, we really are decent human beings in the event of an emergency.  Maybe we actually see the individual and not their politics or anything else that we hold strong opinions about.  

I am grateful the man wasn't hurt.  Sad he lost his vehicle.  Sad he had to go through it.  But grateful to witness the goodness of humans.  To be reminded that, even though social media and the media as a whole would have us believe we hate each other, the opposite is likely true.  When the stuff hits the fan... We still reach out and help.  

So maybe we can tone down the criticisms of each other on social platforms too. Because maybe not all emergencies look like a truck on fire.  Maybe some are internal.  And maybe we all just need to help each other every day.  Regardless of what we may or may not agree on.