Yesterday my partner was on her way home from work, taking her usual route which leads directly through the most crime ridden area of Austin. She was driving and saw a man lying on the sidewalk, as she passed the man feebly reached one arm up, as if to call for help in the only way he could.
Without hesitation my partner turned around and parked next to the man, leaned over and said, "Hey buddy, you okay?" The man's reply was mostly incoherent but he did mention something about smoking something.
"I will get you help"
She called 911 and waited with him, reassuring him, until the ambulance arrived.
Then she came home.
My son and his girlfriend once helped a man who appeared to be on drugs struggling to get on a motorcycle. They went over and tried to help him, stop him from riding and find out what was going on. As it turned out my son and his girlfriend deduced he was a diabetic, and being right near a bakery went in and got him some cookies and orange juice. Within minutes the previous slurring man was perfectly normal and thanked the kids. They said it was no problem, anyone would have done the same.
That is the problem, not everyone does the same.
My partner is looking for meaning in what happened with her and the man lying in the street. She seems blind to the fact that SHE was the one who brought meaning to the incident. No one else stopped. It is a busy road and every other person turned a blind eye, didn't see, or did not want to stop in such a neighborhood for what appeared to be just another crack head..
She confessed that she wants to change the world, but can not see that she already did. Maybe another car passing by took stock of their own life and vowed to stop to help his fellow man. Maybe a woman driving her children pointed out what was happening and taught her children it is a good thing to stop and help the strangers who need it.
Changing the world is not running for office, or standing on a pulpit every Sunday. Changing the world is taking the lessons you have learned out into your family and community. It is actions, not words.
I am no more changing the world by writing this, I was not the one who stopped to help. I am only pointing out the meaning of it.
She did not talk to me about her feelings of this event until today. Until with some irony, we left the voting polls having cast our ballots. I was feeling fairly self righteous about voting, even if it is my civic duty.
What difference did I make by pressing buttons? Does that equal up to helping one man get help?
Somehow I don't think so.
I have asked myself how I have changed the world and I came to the conclusion that I am a listener, I take people's stories as they seem to always want to tell me. I am one of those people that can not run into a store for a quick diet coke. I almost always come out with a story, a piece of someones life that they wanted to tell, and wanted me to hear.
My partner heard the only story she needed to. Help. And she did.
You do not need a cape or a weapon, you just need a heart and possibly a cell phone to change the world.
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