"A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle." Benjamin Franklin

"The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind forward." Igor Sikorsky

"Character is the total of thousands of small daily strivings to live up to the best that is in us." Lt. Arthur Trudeau

I am of the opinion that when we die we will be judged not so much for all of our wrongdoings but for all those times we did not step in to help another person we saw in need of help. This might sound crazy but we worry so much about the fact that we never hurt anybody; we never yelled or called another person any names. We never acted aggressively towards anyone or cut someone out of a line or acted prejudice towards another person. We have a sure pass to heaven so we think. We live our lives rationalizing we are better than the screamer or drunk or cranky neighbor. We pity their faults. Many of us live our whole lives believing we are trying our best to be good and we are doing a successful job.

The problem is we are not spiritual. We are not even humane. If we haven't taught our children more than to say please and thank you we are not even respectful. We might just be selfish self-contained proud and possessive. Wow that is a lot to think about and most of us at the moment are saying I definitely don't fit in with that group. Unfortunately many or most of us do belong in the group that doesn’t jump in to help others. It is time to wake up. We must stop deceiving ourselves. We listen to sermons about what we should not do to others. We should not steal, envy, or hurt another to name a few. It is essential to contemplate what we should do for others. I think that is what we will face judgment on.

We are on our way to work and get a call from a friend early in the morning. We know they probably are looking for a ride and we have driven them before. We are late and don't want to pick them up this morning. We don't have the time. Give yourself a check and view this situation into the future. The wife or husband must take them and they are now very late and get into trouble with their boss. It goes against them when they are up for a review and a pay raise. They go home that night and fight with their spouse.

We are in a bad mood. We are visiting with relatives. We wait for the usual retort from the relative who always says something stupid. We contradict them and prove them wrong. They sit quietly after that and we're glad because we don't care to listen to them anyways. Give yourself a check. We don't get to see it when they go home and flop into a chair and cry. They blubber how stupid they are and how they should just keep their big mouth shut. They are up all night and drag themselves to work the next day. They snap a mean retort to anyone who asks them a question.

Our parents are old. We haven't called them in at least a week. We don't feel like calling them now. We know the routine. We'll hear how much they miss us and why haven't we called. We'll listen, tell them how busy we are, apologize and promise to call sooner the next time. We know we won't but that's okay we have our lives to live and we are busy. We hang up the phone and quickly turn on the game hoping we didn't miss much. We earned another check. We miss the part where our parents are happy we called but their eyes are glistening in the light because they miss us and miss hearing from us. They hope they didn't offend us with the remarks about calling them. They hope we'll call again soon.

We look out the window and see our neighbor trying to catch their runaway dog. They look mighty stupid. We see their dog in our back yard but it's cold and we don't want to go outside. Besides the dog will take off as soon as we go outside. The dog heads for the street and gets hit by a car. We shake our heads at them and say people like that shouldn't own dogs because they don't know how to take care of them. Take a check. We missed the segment where their child's friend came over to play and upon leaving opened the door wide enough for the dog to slip outside. Now the child is in tears because he blames himself for the dog's mishap.

The young mother drops her bag of groceries behind her car. We are already in our car backing out and driving away. She scrambles to pick them up as her toddler in the car unlocks her seat belt. The mother rushes to control the toddler and some of her groceries roll under her car and of course she is unaware of this. She heads back to her groceries and misses a few. She then goes home only to find important items missing, one of which is something her husband requested. She explains, he listens but is not moved only upset that she didn't get what he was waiting for. Add the check to the rest.

The snow was deep and the old guy across the street was attempting to shovel a path for himself, to the mailbox. You ask yourself, where are his kids when he needs them. They are lazy you think as you turn from the window to answer the phone. The checks are adding up. The young mother is dragging in her barrels, while her toddler is yanking on her pants. You hesitate but decide she can handle it. She’s a grown up, besides where is her husband anyways. The list goes on to more severe instances and to the lesser humdrum incidences. We are not bad; we are simply unaware of the harm or the hurt we cause another by not being more attentive to the needs of others. Hopefully our conscience will kick in when we see a person in hardship. That way we won't be able to pass off doing nothing in such situations. Instead we will be moved into action because we are becoming more humane.

"You are the way you are because that's the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you would be in the process of changing right now. " Fred Smith

"If what you believe doesn't affect how you live, then it isn't very important." Dick Nogleberg

Author’s website: www.pamreynolds.me