Volcanoes: vulnerability, virtue and vice

Quote

“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

News

Hundreds of thousands of passengers, stranded for days by the ash-induced flight ban over much of Europe, have found themselves unexpectedly vulnerable, and at the mercy of others to help them get home.  How have other people responded to their plight?

Two particular kinds of response stand out; both involve making a profit.  One group of people have sought to make a fast buck from these hapless travellers, demanding exorbitant prices for hotel rooms, bus tickets, train fares and the like (taxis charging 1000 euros from Brussels to Calais; hotel rooms way over their normal rates; Eurostar train fares 3 times higher than average.)

Another group of people looked on their fellow human beings in distress, and decided to profit from the opportunity to extend kindness and generosity to strangers.  A businessman paid £5000 for a 13 year old boy to get back to Scotland for his mother’s funeral.  In Denver, Colorado, the mayor “has been to our hotel and invited several of us out for a meal at her home,” writes stranded Martin Smith on the BBC website. “It was unbelievable kindness.”  Several pages on social networking websites have been filled with people offering a bed for the night in their homes to stranded passengers.

The first group saw distressed travellers primarily from an economic angle; the second looked at them instead through a relational lens.  The first took, the second gave; I wonder, in the end, who enjoyed their profit the most?

Read on...

The way we respond to strangers is one of the chapters of Michael Schluter and John Lee’s book, The R Option.  You can read the four pages on our website here: www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=44

Walk the talk 

It is liberating to realize that we have a choice how to respond to people who are caught out by unexpected circumstances.  Insurance companies try to avoid paying compensation by calling the volcanic eruption an “act of God”; perhaps it is more accurate to say that it has produced some God-given opportunities to serve others.  Keep your eyes open for the chance to take one.

The last word

From the Bible, Proverbs 11 verse 16: “A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth.”