Caring
Self
“Shortly
afterward, that autumn, I became interested in the subject of generosity and
service and why so many people are compelled to help others. To research the
question, I sent out an e-mail via my website asking people to share stories in
which they had received an unexpected kindness or had themselves helped someone
else in some way. I expected to receive about a hundred letters, but more than
fourteen hundred arrived within three weeks. I read every single one.”
Caroline
Myss (Entering the Castle: An Inner Path to God and Your Soul, p.1; Free Press,
2007)
Do you
ever ponder this question that Caroline Myss raises—why are so many people compelled
to help others? We humans are like Janus from Roman mythology, the god of
doors, gates, and transitions. Janus represented both sides of the door—the entering
and the leaving. He was also known as “the initiator of human life, transformation
between stages of life and shifts from one historical era to another.” (God of
Doors, Gates, and Transitions: History of the Ancient God Janus; www.andersonlock.com) As for us, we are
simply of two minds—we are both destructive and constructive, both hateful and
loving, both caring and neglectful. When we care about people, or when there is
an expectation of us, we almost always come through. One example from my own
neighborhood is that when someone, even a neighbor we don’t know well, is sick
or just home from the hospital, we take food and tag-team care packages. I’m
sure you do this too.
Especially
during these difficult years of pandemic when so many of us have been isolated
and lonely, we’ve tried to fill the gap. People in Alabama would say, “It’s the
Christian thing to do.” And, it is, of course, but that actually has nothing to
do with it because some of us are not Christian. It’s the human thing to
do. Just as Margaret Mead observed when someone asked her for evidence of when
humans first became “civilized.” Her answer was not about their use of tools or
fire or when they built the first wheel—it had to do with finding a human femur
that had been broken and then healed. According to Mead, that couldn’t have
happened in ancient times without care and support from others. In other words,
we’re considered civilized when our actions help others.
It’s
even a mammalian thing to do. There are many videos on YouTube showing one
animal saving another—from a frozen lake, crossing a busy road, gathering up
cubs, pulling a baby elephant out of the mud. Warm blooded animals help each
other—they even help other species. In my neighborhood, any day of the week,
you can watch crows chase away hawks from the nests of little birds. They are a
team.
We may
be in disarray, we may be angry and divisive, but we must remember that there
is also another side to us—one that wants to bring the center back together. One
that wants to be civilized and restore equilibrium. One that cares for others—even
the people who disagree with us. That part of us is our deepest human soul—our divine
spark. We should get to know it better.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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