One Human Family

A couple days ago, I came across several websites that talked about their campaign or movement to solve the problem of social isolation we face in our society. These websites mentioned the founders of the movements either having an experience of isolation themselves or deciding to bring awareness to how we ignore each other on the street. From those sites, clicking on other links led me to even more sites that spread awareness about these issues and are trying to do their own thing to solve it.

Why are these movements appearing? Why the dissatisfaction with everyone keeping to themselves? We all have our own separate lives going on anyway, why should we connect with “strangers”? These movements are starting to show up left and right because the majority of people feel the disconnectedness in our society and leaders who are just that fed up with it are starting to do something about it. And the cool thing is, people are responding to these movements. People are responding because we are one human family. We’re really not that different from our neighbors, people from the other side of the coast, or people from the other side of the world. It just makes sense that we are connected and this disconnection is causing problems.

One problem that is causes is that the majority of people aren’t willing to reach out and help each other out. There have been studies about the causes to why people aren’t willing to help random strangers in need such as people thinking someone else will help or people not wanting to stand out. I say that the cause is that we forget we’re all human, experience very similar things, and are really in this together whether we act out that fact or not.

I was inspired to write this post because I wanted to share something I did yesterday. There was an old man on the side of the freeway with his hazard lights on, hood of the car popped up, searching for something in his trunk. I watched him search through his trunk for about 5 minutes because it was bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway, and I could see him from far away. Since I’ve been practicing helping anyone I see in need these past couple months, I immediately started thinking whether I should help him or not. I’ve never helped someone with car problems, let alone on the side of a freeway. One, I’m a girl that doesn’t really know anything about cars, and two, I’m a girl, we’re normally taught not to help strangers like that. I decided to help him out because my heart told me to do so, and I weighed out any potential dangers. There really weren’t any because it was broad daylight still, it was bumper to bumper traffic, so everyone on the freeway can see me.

I pulled over in front of his car on the side of the freeway, then walked over to him and asked him if he needed any help. He looked like such a sweet old man. =) He was muttering a bunch of things without even looking at me while continuing to look through his trunk. I noticed he had hearing aids on, so I asked him a bit louder. He heard me, then walked me over to the engine and started talking about the different parts of the engine and what went wrong. I asked him if I could do anything to help, then he walked to his trunk and put some coolant wherever it belonged. I only knew it was coolant because it said on the bottle. It actually said vinegar on the bottle, but then I noticed coolant was written on the bottle with a marker. Then he said he’ll need some oil. I offered to buy some oil and bring it back to him. He was about to give me $20 for the oil, but then he looked at me and I knew he started thinking if he should give a stranger $20. I decided to tell him that I’ll buy it, and when I come back he could pay me back. He liked that idea better. Long story short, I brought the oil back to him, the car started working good enough where he could drive it, and he thanked me and said I was a sweetheart. =)

I’m glad I decided to help him because when I saw him for the 5 minute period, no one was pulling over or offering help. He ended up not having a cell phone, so he wouldn’t have been able to get home unless someone helped him. When one of our immediate family members need help, we’re right there for them. In fact, families are great because they are the ones we can pretty much always rely on when problems arise. I understand some people don’t have family they can rely on, but hopefully you’ve created your own family of trustworthy friends that you can rely on.

Going back to what I was talking about at the beginning of this post, more and more people, if not the majority, notice that people are more disconnected than ever. It is important to point out that people are noticing this. If there wasn’t anything wrong, it wouldn’t be anything to notice or even talk about. The fact that people notice means we realize there is something wrong about this disconnection. The problem is that our family is disconnected. We realize when our immediate family is falling apart. Our human family is falling apart because we’re not connecting with each other – we’re not there for each other.

If the opportunity comes up and if it’s safe of course, but don’t rationalize that something is unsafe when really it isn’t just so that you can get out of helping someone because it’s more convenient for you time wise or emotionally. If that opportunity comes up, maybe you can help a stranger (aka our human family member). It was actually really fun to help him out. ;o)

Help a stranger

Today I helped a stranger. I never tell anyone when I do this. I do this almost every time I see someone in need. I decide not to tell anyone because I do it out of my personal desire to help anyone in need and not got any credit for it. Today is different because I started this blog and there’s something I really want to say about this. My blog’s domain name is live and love again revolution. This is the name because there’s been a stirring in my heart about helping people revive their lives and spread love in their immediate surroundings and then extending it to the whole world. I feel people need to revive their lives because I feel people have lost their sense of selves and are drowning in following what everyone else buys and does. Some examples are having an iphone, wearing the same clothes, having a 9-5 job they don’t care about, looking forward to getting wasted in the weekend, and then repeating the same cycle. I don’t feel this is living. Moreover, I feel we’ve lost our sensitivity to the other person, especially strangers in need. I’m so sure there are people who do random acts of kindness everyday, but I feel the majority prefer not to get involved out of habit or out of fear of standing out.

Today I was running some errands and there was this senior man sitting in his walker with a plastic bag next to him. I had just finished dropping off my UPS package, saw him, got in the car, then felt my spirit nudging me. It was nudging me to help the guy. What went through my mind was: what if he doesn’t need help, what will this lady in the van with her children think, what if he gets offended? But then I knew my spirit wouldn’t allow me to not do something. I felt there was something he needed. Whether it was a meal or some money. I got out of my car and asked him how he was doing and if he needed any help. He told me that he missed his bus and that he had no way to go home. He told me about the special bus he takes that takes him right to his door. I noticed a minivan with the bus company he was talking about parked at Wendy’s across the street. I told him I could ask the driver of the van if he could take him home or give us information on how he can get the bus to come and pick him up. He appreciated it. I went over to the driver who looked at me very suspiciously and slowly lowered the window only a third of the way down. But I smiled very sweetly and asked very kindly if he could help the person I was trying to help. He didn’t seem too happy about it because he looked like he was on his break, but he said he’ll go over and call for a bus to pick him up. The driver drove to the man and they started to arrange plans for his pick-up. Otherwise, the man would’ve had to wait who knows how long to receive the door-to-door bus service he receives.

I share this story because it was just a simple act of kindness that helped him out. I just feel moments like this bring love into the world and bring connection among people that is so needed. So back to the title of my domain “live and love again revolution.” I am passionate about helping people live again–to break free from the spirit of dissatisfaction that is so prevalent in our culture. To live a life that they can be proud of whether it be through their jobs, family life, with their friends, and in their hobbies. To not settle for what everyone else is doing, so that they can feel alive again. And to love again–to care about people again and step out of their comfort zones to create a culture of helping one another and not caring what other’s think.