Thought for the Week: Lessons
Connie Hazell considers lessons being learned every day
‘Lessons will be learned.’ How often have we heard this from a politician or the head of an organisation when things have gone horribly wrong, or to quote the usual phrase ‘the outcome is not acceptable’? Yet, if we are honest, we know that lessons are not left behind when we cease full-time education. They are being learned every day.
We are blessed with a corner shop opposite to where we live, albeit across two quite busy roads. I was coming out of the shop one blustery day with shopping and a walking stick, and hesitated, hoping the wind would subside before I started to cross the road. I was vaguely aware of a lorry parked at right angles to where I was standing. When the driver got out I naturally thought he was making for the shop. He was dressed all in black – baseball cap on back-to-front, with what we used to call ‘bovver boots’, and an image of skull and crossbones on the front of his T-shirt. The phrase ‘I wouldn’t like to meet him on a dark night’ came to mind. However, he came towards me, offered his arm, and said: ‘Would you like me to come across the road with you?’ A lesson learned. One cannot always judge by appearances
I have a cousin who lives in a small town in Russia. He is not a young man and not a fit man. One day recently he was coming home from the shops carrying his week’s shopping in a heavy rucksack. He began to feel giddy and decidedly unwell. He paused and felt himself sway, when a man passing by held on to him firmly by the shoulders, took his rucksack and placed it on the ground. Almost simultaneously an elderly woman paused and held on to his other side. They waited until his dizziness had passed and then asked him where he lived, before escorting him to the bus stop. The man carried the rucksack. The woman travelled on the bus with him, although it was apparently out of her way, and escorted him to his front door. This was not a newsworthy story and good news rarely seems to come out from Russia. It is easy to forget, however, that Russia, like other countries, consists of ordinary people going about their daily lives as we all do. The email that contained this story was entitled ‘The Good Samaritan’.
I expect that somewhere there is a picture of the Samaritan dressed in the clothes of his time and place, but in my mind there is the picture of the man with the skull and crossbones T-shirt and the everyday twenty-first century dress of the two unknown people in Russia.
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