KINDNESS

Are You Like A Peach, Only Mature For One Day?

Hurricane Ian and other horrible events help me take stock

Hurricane Ian hit Florida yesterday, causing extensive flooding and knocking out power to millions. It’s now making its way toward South Carolina. Winds are whistling through branches outside our windows as I write this, whipping weak branches and wide-leaf plants around like thread barren strips of cloth.

Empty grocery store shelves

Those powerful winds attempted to throw my SUV outside the lines on the road as I drove to the grocery store. Empty shelves and a crowded parking lot greeted me, as apparently, many of my neighbors were stocking up in preparation for the impending storm. As strangers waited to get their carts by in packed isles, I heard more ‘Excuse me’ and ‘Sorry’ sentiments than sighs and rude comments I would normally hear.

I also didn’t notice any pushing or shoving. This same behavior was evident in the parking lot. Rather than waiting indefinitely to be able to back out of my space, another vehicle waited and let me back out, needing my precious spot.

Major flooding

A few articles have mentioned Florida’s flooding as a 500-year flood event. We expect enough water in Charleston tomorrow to make this the 7th highest water level since they started keeping track. Anything might happen.

Sometimes natural disasters happen. There was the Great Flood of 1993. I had already left for the Navy, but I vividly remember my mom telling me about this happening in Des Moines, Iowa, and how everyone came together during that time to help sandbag.

Everyone coming together as a community was the only way the city could expedite bringing water back into everyone’s homes. That’s what’s talked about in the last 3 minutes of the video in the above link.

However, my kids and I were back in Iowa for the historic flood of 2008. We witnessed the kindness of strangers, everyday people wanting to be kind to one another.

Other major events

I saw it again when COVID-19 resulted in many of us being sent to work from home.

Major events that affect a significant number of individuals somehow bring people together. I remember feeling this way when 9/11 happened. For a while, everyone seemed kinder, gentler, and willing to help one another.

I feel relaxed and happy when I witness this type of behavior. Earlier today, our next-door neighbor stopped over to let us know we could call them should we need help with anything; we reciprocated the offer.

How quickly we forget

Driving away from the grocery store, I felt warm and wished more people were like this all the time, not just when disasters are imminent or have already occurred. As I thought about the human experience, there are two instances when it seems behaviors change quickly for the worse.

One of those is when the imminent danger has subsided or passed. When that happens, everyone seems to have easily forgotten and immediately returns to their old ways. The other is when things get terrible. That’s when everyone’s true colors come out. Only a handful will genuinely remain kind and willing to step up to help out their fellow humans in their greatest time of need.

The majority, as we’ve witnessed repeatedly when things get awful in war, famine, and horrific natural disasters, take advantage and won’t help others. They help only themselves and will step over or on top of others, maybe even destroy others, or steal from others when given the opportunity. That’s the ugly shining through.

The peach

All of this made me think about the peach. Most of the time, it isn’t enjoyable to eat; it’s hard and still tasteless, perhaps even tart. Then for maybe a single day, it’s absolutely perfect; at its peak maturity, the exact level of softness to bite into, so sweet it tastes like dessert, juicy enough to result in sticky hands, arms and clothes if you aren’t careful.

However, if you wait too long, after that one perfect day, that same peach is no longer pleasant; its skin begins to shrivel up, it’s overripe and sloppily soft; no one would want to be near it now.

I thought about how important it is for me to be kinder and gentler to strangers more often, and not just when I’m fearful. None of us is perfect all the time. But we can try to be thoughtful and kind to one another more often. We can maintain our maturity longer than a peach.

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