EVERY so often – and I think this is true for almost everyone – we humans experience or see something us that sparks deep within us brilliant shafts of compassion and love.
I’m talking about those rare moments when, for instance, we talk of seeing something that’s ‘touched’ our hearts.
The best of these moments, I find, arise out of very ordinary circumstances. I experienced one recently while queuing at the check-out in a New Brighton supermarket.
In front of me were two very old and very frail people, evidently a man and wife.
They were quietly debating whether their budget that day would stretch to adding a big multi-pack of cheap crisps to their shopping.
God love them. If they’d been 50 pence short I’d have given them the money myself, but as it turned out the crisps were on special promotion and only cost 69p for the lot.
The old lady beamed when told the price by staff. Though her face was heavily lined, in that moment she was radiant – and the smile given to her by her husband was filled with love.
Then as they hobbled out of Somerfield's they linked arms, tenderly. Call me an old softie, but the scene touched my heart.
I don’t know who this couple are, but I’m glad they are still alive and have each other. They must have been in their nineties. What incredible times they have lived through.
As I looked at them I understood how great it is to be married, how fortunate most of us are to find a life-partner (at least for part of our lives), and also how difficult it must be to be old and not have much money.
I felt solidarity with that old couple, and it is always good for us to feel solidarity with fellow human beings.
I hope that Posh Boots and I, who are planning to be wed later this year, grow old together like that couple have. We are certainly showing all the signs of maturing into material poverty.
But back to my point … about how great and how rare are the moments of grace when for a short time we become totally selfless and feel surges of compassion or love for others.
Such moments stand out because they are so dissimilar in tone to everything else that assails our senses in the corrosive, fatiguing society that is modern Britain.
We seem have lost the habit of considering how others are and how we inter-relate with them.
Perhaps we simply haven’t the time, being swept along with the rush and splutter of modern life, with all its stress, long working hours, false imperatives and impossible ‘to do’ lists.
But it seems to me that these moments of love and compassion are highly valuable to us. For one thing they remind us that there is more to life than the gratification of personal need.
They remind us that we are not alone; we stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings, and that thought itself should bring comfort to us all.
Best of all, when we look at something through eyes of love, we see it correctly and we comprehend its meaning and its mystery.
Sadly, we more commonly see through eyes that are cynical, bitter or jaded – and that means we don’t see things – or people – correctly; we fail to comprehend their meaning and their mystery.
No wonder we feel that everything is wrong about the way we live.
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Robin Wallasey wrote...
Steve, that was great, thank God that there are still people like you in the world. My heart goes out to those two old dears. I am an OAP now, and realize how hard things can be, but, for that couple who must have seen so much change (and not all for the betterin their lives). I would of helped out as well. Good luck to you and Posh Boots by the way. May your love continue for as long as the couple´s in Somerfields. Robin.
REGAN REPLIED - Thanks Robin. The road of love can often be rocky, as doubtless you know. But, inspired by the words of St Paul, I will, as long as there is breath in my body, "fight the good fight, keep the faith, and run the race to the finish."
Posted by: Robin Wallasey | April 13, 2008 5:48 PM