Let’s imagine this situation. You are going home from work one evening when, during your commute home, you witness someone in need of assistance. Perhaps it is someone who has injured himself or herself while walking on the road. Maybe it is someone who has been mugged. Or perhaps it is someone who is depressed and is in danger of self harm.
You stop whatever you are doing to help – never mind that you have had a long day at work and had been looking forward to a nice evening meal, slouched in front of the telly with a glass of wine or other beverage, and in front of your favourite evening programme. Or it may have been that you had been looking forward to a quiet romantic evening. Never mind all that now. You recognise the urgency of the situation and realise that you have to set aside your own needs temporarily to deal with those of the other person.
In a way, it requires you to selflessly give up part of yourself so that you are able to give to the other person, either in the form of physical assistance or perhaps maybe just something that costs financially less – merely in the form of companionship. Perhaps it is someone who is struggling in his or her own life and is thinking of the ultimate end to things.
If it were a true situation, how would you react? Would you walk on, thinking that it is better to avoid getting involved in a situation that might prove to be too difficult to extricate yourself from? Would you risk being too socially, or emotionally involved? Or might you think that you cannot afford the time to, because you are in a rush, or not skilled enough to deal with this sort of situation, and maybe someone else after you might be?
The jazz composer George Gershwin dropped out of school at the age of fifteen and had it not been for interventions along the way he might have just ended up in a menial job (as all dropouts might have), but crucially these interventions steered him along the right path where he met teachers that enhanced his skill. Other composers such as Beethoven, who was bullied by his father and teacher, might have benefitted from intervention as well.
The next time you see someone in need, be a little more compassionate and stop for a while. You never know, yours might be the voice that matters and turns things around.