Turn Correct

It was an amazingly beautiful cool winter day in sunny Sausalito.  A brilliant day with a vast blue sky.   We are just a few weeks away from the official beginning of “freak out” over the lack of rain so far this winter.  However, this morning was the sort of morning that makes one secretly happy the rain has not started yet.

As I was enjoying my cappuccino, with a background of gentle Christmas music; a fire truck followed by an ambulance raced by with sirens and lights ablaze with sound and fury.   Immediately after the firetruck had cleared the intersection a car made its right-hand turn from the cross street and headed in oblivion in the opposite direction of the fire truck.  These vehicles moving in opposite directions were a visual metaphor for how we deal with crisis.   The fire truck speeding toward a crisis in one’s life and the car moving away from that crisis without concern or consideration.

We cannot worry about everybody.  Afterall there are 8 billion or so people moving in and out of crisis.  However, this seems like a good time of year to consider thinking of others.  By definition the firetruck was going to a problem.  Someone was not experiencing the kind of day I was savoring.   At the end of this firetruck’s journey was a problem.  Someone’s life had been interrupted and changed.  The beauty of the day was now shattered and someone was going to have to find an answer for the unfortunate circumstances that were suddenly thrust upon them.

The car moving in the opposite direction had no such thoughts.  They were just moving on through a crisis-less day. The kind of day that exists in the quiet corner of a sunlit day.

Where was the ambulance going, who was in crisis, and what caused them to call first responders?  I'll never know, and nor will the people that live in this little town.  I could not help but think about how undisturbed my life was and how profoundly disturb was the life at the end of the firetruck’s journey.    For the people who are waiting for that truck there's nothing more important.  Their crisis needs to be dealt with but more importantly the community around them needs to understand.  The energy surrounding this little hamlet is being altered and we are not aware nor are we doing anyting about it..

I don’t believe that humanity will ever be able to be empathetic enough to make decisions that are positive for everyone.   Will the decisions made by the firetruck be the best for the people in crisis or will the decisions made be at the convenience of those in the truck? We are making decisions that are self-serving, without a thought to those people who called the ambulance who are living in their personal crisis. The other people who came into the intersection have long since gone.  They will not know the power of empathy as they drove the opposite way. We cannot ever get out of this until we start thinking about the people who called the ambulance.  The world is in crisis and we are still turning the opposite direction.  We must practice empathy and turn to the problem to solve with humanity.

Is someone you know in crisis? Good time to turn correctly and call…….