Big Dig

I know these pictures are from two years ago, but it was a busy weekend. We went from bare ground to between 32" and 40" practically overnight. Our apartment complex looked very much like these images.

In a 181-unit  complex, our two maintenance workers were overwhelmed. But from before sunrise, neighbor helped neighbor dig each other out.

Starting 5am Saturday morning, while winds howled and the storm continued to dump an obscene amount of snow, the big dig began. A young nurse and her husband shoveled a 30-foot path from their door, down a completely covered driveway to the street, where she was to meet a co-worker with four-wheel drive to get to the hospital.

Most residents were literally trapped inside the buildings; the three-foot snowfall prevented the door opening outward. A few lucky ones literally squeezed their way out and then went door-to-door -- wading through waist deep snow -- to dig out the rest.

Once most people were outside, they dug steps and sidewalks, linking four-foot deep trenches to each other. Then we approached the parking lot, and stood in awe. There were no side-panels, side-mirrors, wipers or even antennas visible; the snow mounds made it impossible to differentiate sedan from mini-van. So we all pitched in shoveling out each other, making bets as to whose vehicle lay underneath the next pile.

It wasn't just the "strong young bucks" that were out shoveling. From children, to pregnant women, to retirees in their 70's, many turned out to shovel, clearing snow from steps, walkways and vehicles. Those who could not, offered hot chocolate and soup to the workers. I believe it's times like this that illustrates why these folk are known as "hardy New Englanders."

By late afternoon, heavy-construction equipment rolled through to move some of the snow. The bucket-loader widened the narrow trench down the driveway, but we were left digging through literal walls of snow - seven feet wide by six foot high - with snow shovels. By Sunday night, long past sunset, people were still shoveling, identifying and freeing the vehicles for those required to report to work the next morning. For those whose vehicles which were hopelessly trapped behind mountainous snow mounds piled over 15 feet high, offers sprang up for rides to and from work until their vehicle was freed.

While there may be stories of sadness, inconvenience and frustration following any major storm, there are also beautiful opportunities to help each other too.

Does anyone else have similar stories to share?

~ ESA

Random Acts of Care

One of the stories my father told me, and I included in his eulogy years later, was one of caring for our fellow human beings. He was driving along this road late one night and saw someone parked on the shoulder with a flat tire, struggling to change it. As this was well before cell phones, and in a place where it may be hours before a police cruiser passed, my father stopped to help him. It was evident from the start, the man did not know what he was doing, so my father took the tire iron and changed the tire for him. When the man took out his wallet and tried to pay for the job, my father refused the money and, instead, told him this. "You know how you can repay me? Next time you see someone in need where you can do something, help them. If they offer you payment, tell them to pass on the act as payment in full."

While skimming through the headlines this morning, all sorts of horrors were reported, from the Taliban killing a young engaged couple to a 13-year old being accused of theft in Illinois. But then one link caught my eye and I read it through (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30092624/).

In this story, a team of Wyoming snow plows escorted a gentlemen through a blizzard with white-out conditions to the hospital 250 miles from his home so he could receive a long-awaited transplant. I think it wasn't so much the fact that this man finally received his transplant as the fact that several others (a 911-dispatcher, a police officer, and a WDOT boss) took it upon themselves to steer away from their job's official procedure and choose to do what they could to help a fellow human being. In today's economy, jobs are getting scarce. I can easily envision a WDOT accountant complaining that the State shouldn't have wasted the money on a convoy of plows for one man. Sadly, any of those people who helped may have jeopardized their job, and even their family's welfare, in doing so. But they did it anyway.

Too many times in our lives, we just follow the procedures. We move like sheep following one shepherd or another, but rarely the One in our hearts whose only request was to love one another. With that loving flows the incentive to help one another, reaching out to others who may not be part one group or another we proclaim ourselves to be members of, but out to another human being who shares this small blue planet with us.

I'm certain if I hunted for them, I could find other news stories like these. But I think most "good deeds" go unrecorded, best paid if we return to the favor to a fellow human being in need.

- ESA