Wondering.....
I've met some great people in this world. I mean like really great. People I can only hope to be half of. My parents were two, but I didn't really appreciate it at the time, and now it can be mostly said it was the great way they raised me and my sisters. Kind of lame/tame, unless it's compared to others who haven't had that sort of luck in their upbringing. My folks were pretty damned good people. Maybe they set the bar.
My sisters, both, would be the next examples. I'm recognizing this more later in life, the same as realizing / discovering the difference between just being a nice guy (me) and being a really great person. I'm an aspiring "great person" an in-intentioned mentor has made me realize now. I really thought I was good because my thoughts were golden. My actions haven't quite kept up with my thoughts.
My sisters, both, have helped people in their communities unselfishly. Both are very religious, one being devout Catholic, just as i was raised, and the other more deeply Christian. From knowing them I would describe the difference as one religion based on tradition, and the other based on that plus a lot of self discovery and study of the bible.
An example of my first non religious thing that is driving this part of this blog. I say "non-religious", but it's only that because no mention of god or church, but it has every part of those teachings.
Sunny day in August in Ohio, 20...whatever. We tie a parasail to a jeep. Someone (Marty Brown) ends up going through a windshield of a truck, just after I leave after having done it all afternoon. I can't find the newspaper article from the Circleville Ohio newspaper, but it started with "Parasailing, which is normally done behind a boat.........."
So Marty broke a bone or got some stitches or something mainly minor. I didn't know him that well at the time, nor did I know the guy who gave him the $300 the next day. I remember clearly thinking that was the coolest thing in the world. It wasn't a ton of money, but that guy didn't know Marty at all. He just saw he got hurt, was part of it kind of, and he decided to give him what little money he had to help him. I remember being so jealous that I wasn't like him.
There's a couple out here like that. "Jamber" or rather Jobe and Amber. I would guess it's more Jobe driving what this is about, but Amber is completely agreeable, but maybe more like me and less ....thoughtful. I don't really know, maybe it was Amber's idea.
I go over there today, and they are talking about the anxiety facing the Marshallese at the small boat marina. The leader, Gary, told them that the new contractor had offered him 65% of his current salary to continue to do what he does. Kwajalein is going thru some fairly radical changes as the contractors who run the island are being ...replaced.
This in a unique place, and no one coming here can instantly appreciate the Marshallese. They are the most awesome of people....it's unexplainable until you spend time working or living with them.
So Jamber, worries about the guys at the Marina.....collects ("collects"...meaning they and two others maybe) $2500 and goes down with $500 envelopes of cash and gives it to the guys working there, because they think its shitty that the new contractor offered them a week before Christmas ....65% of their current pay to keep their job.
I want to be like Jamber.
No comments:
Post a Comment