A man was robbed, beaten, and left for dead. A religious leader ignored him, walking on the other side of the road. Another religious man passed by him. Both were of the same nationality as the hurt man.
A third man, moved by the sight of this helpless individual, took in the scene with pity, but he did not share the victim’s background. In fact, these two backgrounds traditionally hated one another; however, this man tended to his wounds, took him to an inn, gave the innkeeper two day’s wages for the man’s keep, and promised to repay the innkeeper if there were any additional costs.
He was the Good Samaritan, and he did not even know that defenseless man.
Flash forward 2,000 years to just last year in Tulsa, OK, when 27-year-old Valentino Verner, lay bleeding from a gunshot wound on the ground in front of Chicken Hut’s pick-up window.
Tulsa police reported that numerous people stepped over Verner to get their food, ignoring the victim. Some restaurant customers even shoved emergency workers to get to that pickup window. According to reports, over 100 people were at the scene when the police arrived, but only one person decided to call 911. However, no one tried to help Verner, who later died in the hospital.
Everyone is busy. However, are we so busy, or rather self-centered, that we cannot take the time to do one, small, neighborly act?
John M. Grohol, Psy.D., a pioneer in online mental health, reported that smiling increases neighborly behavior in an article at psychcentral.com, the world’s first mental health social networking community, founded by Grohol. His article highlighted a study that showed smiling could change a person’s behavior.
Over a period of time, French researchers Gueguen and De Gail observed 800 passersby walking into a supermarket. In half of the randomly selected cases, a confederate, or person acting on behalf of the researchers, smiled at the passersby. In the other half of the cases, a confederate did not smile. Later, the passersby had the opportunity to help another confederate who dropped computer diskettes.
Nearly 30 percent who received smiles stopped to help, while only 20 percent who received no smiles helped. The lesson? A simple smile can spawn acts of neighborliness.
Smiling is just a start for the busy American. Did you know that people spend more than 3 hours a day in front of a television or computer screen, and less than 15 minutes per day doing outside chores and gardening? “Every Monday Matters,” writers Matthew Emerzian and Kelly Bozza, notes that if you are not outside washing your car, mowing your lawn, taking a walk, or playing with your children, then you have no opportunity to converse with your neighbors.
Take some time to be outside, available for a conversation, or provide necessary help for your neighbors. You can volunteer to shovel their snowy walkway or watch their home when they take a vacation.
Now it’s one thing to smile and just be outside, but a completely different story to take the initiative to openly interact with a stranger. To break the ice, bring a neighbor some of your famous, freshly baked cookies or a few tomatoes from your garden. That act of neighborliness may take no longer than five minutes, but it will mean a lot to a neighbor.
Who really are our neighbors? They are not just family, friends, or people that live close by. Our neighbors are the people we interact with on a day-to-day basis, our fellow employees, our child’s schoolteacher, the local grocery store clerk.
We might not be in a position to spend two day’s wages on a stranger, like the Good Samaritan. However, we can be a good neighbor by taking a few minutes to be thoughtful. A simple smile can pave the way.
Comments
We've forgotten to be good Samaritans
In the old story of the good Samaritan, it would seem as if the two religious men would undoubtedly be ready to help any man they found injured or in trouble. However, when they find the injured man, they are too "busy" to help him, and thus they do not help. Finally, the Samaritan arrives. Because his background and the injured man's backgrounds are rivals, one would think that he would act the same as the two religious men. However, the Samaritan does not; he does not see the man as a rival or enemy, but as a fellow human being, who must be helped and tended to.
Today, we are all "busy." Due to this, we often overlook the problems of other people, and, even if we notice them, we try to deny the fact that they are there. Thus, when people such as Valentino Verner are injured like the man who was helped by the good Samaritan, they often are unnoticed, which often has tragic results. We may even cause even more harm to them. Clearly, no one wants this to happen; however, we often forget to offer help to those in need.
If we could re-learn to be more friendly with our neighbors, it may be possible to prevent such tragic ocurrences.a few friendly smiles would be a good way to start; maybe we could start a few conversations, thus strengthening the relationship. A few steps at a time, we would slowly rebuild our relationships with our neighbors. And hopefully, these improved relationships with our neighbors would help us all be good Samaritans.