Thursday 20 November 2008

The importance of hospitality in crisis

It's during crisis that people's gifts really come out, and it is particularly those who do hospitality well that I want to draw attention to. These are the people who cook lunch or cut up fruit for workers cleaning the streets. They take drinks of water around. But more than that, these tend to be the same people who open their homes to shelter people or goods as necessary while other houses are being rebuilt. I was out there yesterday, giving food and water to workers, and it's not my natural habitat, but there are people for whom that is the normal thing to do when it needs doing.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Everyone is very thankful.
PPS - And so am I.

4 comments:

Kammorremae said...

Durring hurricane Gaston in 2004, central Virginia suffered massive damage. In Richmond, most people couldn't leave their neighborhoods. The water from faucets became undrinkable, so most of central VA didn't even have water to drink. Back then, I owned a mini-van, so the morning after Gaston hit, I filled it with bottled water, two axes, and 100ft of rope, and drove around the city limits with my friend Tom, handing out water and trying to clear roads.

I agree, it's inspiring what people are willing to do to help out in a crisis, it's just a shame that it takes a crisis to motivate them.

John said...

True. I'm ashamed to admit that I had not spoken to my neighbours even next door until the suburb was shredded by this storm. Why does it take disaster to make us band together as human beings?

Kammorremae said...

We're raised to mind our own business. It tends to mutate into a desire to avoid unknown elements, even if it's our neighbors.

But when something drastic happens, it takes us out of our comfort zone. We're willing to do more, and to do things we wouldn't normally.

Or it could be sympathy versus empathy. We can feel sorry for a neighbor who's house is destroyed, but we may not grasp how it affects them emotionally, or the choices they're now faced with. But when something like this happens, everyone tends to be affected equally. In a way, it bonds us by giving us all common ground.

John said...

Avoiding the unknown does sound like a reasonable explanation, but I would probably lean towards empathy. We all suffer, so we all understand what everyone else is going through.