“I wept because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet”. The message of this ancient Chinese proverb is that we should be grateful for what we have because there is always going to be someone in worse shape. It is ever so easy to complain about the trivial things in life; i.e., the lack of service in a restaurant, the length of time of a red light, the inordinate number of commercials on television, and on-and on. We can also be guilty of being impatient about matters that have no meaningful impact on the moment or the future. In the larger landscape of life, much of what we complain about and what we are impatient over pales in comparison to what others are experiencing or have experienced.
As we reflect on the catastrophic, life-altering events of the past few months we must give pause and be grateful for being spared. Those living in the Panhandle area of Florida continue to be without a home, a job or the basics of life. They continue to be refugees living in other cities away from the devastation that changed their lives. This past week I was in southern Alabama and looking for a motel/hotel room. I stopped at five different places only to be told they were full and had no rooms. I finally asked what was going on and was told that many of the rooms were occupied by those displaced from Hurricane Michel. How long will their displacement be and what do they do about going back to what was once home? Mexico Beach was obliterated from the map by the hurricane, so where do you start in the rebuilding process? Life for these victims will never be the same. They will be required to adjust to a much different life than they knew prior to the hurricane.
The fires in California have also obliterated complete communities such as Paradise, California. There have been countless incidents of individuals seeking to save their property and then fleeing at the last moment. As of this writing, 66 have lost their lives and another 600 are unaccounted for amongst the smoldering ruins of lives forever changed. The walls of fire, which were magnified by the Santa Anna winds, made no distinction as to race, income level, gender, or age among those who perished. It has been reported that the fires raged at speeds equivalent to a hurricane. How does one escape such fury? Where do you escape to? There was the reported incident of a father driving a car with his 3-year-old daughter and convincing her that they would get through the walls of fire on either side of the car. Yes, they did survive, but many did not.
Think of those who have walked from Central American to the border of Mexico and America hoping to gain political asylum. Many have gotten ill and dropped out of the group escaping the brutality of gangs in their homelands. Consider the more than 14,000 children from countries south of the American border who are living in tents and federal detention centers. What is their fate? How will they survive the absence of a nurturing mother? How will their isolation impact their physical and emotional development? Indeed, those in the caravan and those isolated children are additional examples of catastrophic occurrences in the recent past.
As we think of the significance of this week and the familial importance of Thanksgiving, do reflect on those less fortunate and be grateful for what you have. Think of those displaced by Hurricane Michael or the California fires. Think of those poor souls who have marched thousands of miles to seek a measure of freedom and think of those children who languish in tent cities and detention cents. Give thanks for the life you have and remember there are always those who are in worse shape and live in worse conditions.