HELPFULNESS
T. J. Ray, Guest Columnist
One of the 12 points of the Boy Scout Law is “A Scout is helpful.” The Scout Oath includes “I will do my best to do my duty to God and country and to help other people at all times.” And the Scout Motto is “Do a good turn daily.”
In a world that so needs as much help as it can get, such encouragement as boys get in Scout troops is important. These days we see many versions of the Pay-It-Forward philosophy that was the theme of a movie about a boy several years ago. Now it shows up in commercials and other places. One who noticed another helping someone goes on to help a third person, and a chain is formed. An afternoon television show recently showed people who had been given a big chunk of money giving that money away. Then the givers were allowed to express how good they felt about helping another person.
And just over a week ago the nation took a day off (except for the many thousands who had to work and will likely be at work Christmas Day and New Year’s Day) to give thanks for the blessing we have received. My unscientific guess is that for most people it was nothing more than another holiday – not holy day, holiday. Schools even shut down for the whole week, as though kids need that long of a break just before the Christmas break.
One has to wonder how many individuals spent any of the last Thursday in November contemplating how much they have to be thankful for. Giving thanks would certainly detract from huge meals (for the lucky ones) and hunger (for so many others). Thanks giving would most definitely be out of the question after the kickoff.
Perhaps the emphasis needs to be shifted. Perhaps we should stress how wonderful it would be for someone to be thankful for us and things we had done. Scouts are told over and over not to do a Good Turn for reward or recognition. The goal is to be an invisible benefactor for someone else, very much like the Pay-It-Forward folks. Would it not be a better place to live if somewhere, for some reason, and without our knowing about it, someone paused to think of us, to say aloud or to himself “Thank you” for some deed, however grand or incidental (or even unconscious to us)?
Yes, this is being written days and days after Thanksgiving, but the point is to suggest that we need to do things for other people that triggers unexpressed gratitude in them. One day is simply not sufficient to encompass all the help we can give others. And the caring aid need not wait for another special day at church or a one-day clean-up in some part of town.
Could we not adopt the attitude of that unknown Good Samaritan who did the good turn and went on about his business? Perhaps that spirit would slow us down near a Salvation Army kettle or a Pantry appeal for extra food for needy families at Christmas.
(T.J. Ray, a retired professor of English at the University of Mississippi, can be reached at tjmaryjo@bellsouth.net.)
THANKS TJ, THE WORDWRIGHT