Love Of Neighbor In Action
Dan Doyle
Steve Hartman has found and shared yet another example of what our "better angels" look like.
This video speaks for itself, but let me add a couple of thoughts to it.
We talk about moral character. and we admire parables like "The Good Samaritan," but most of the time we think about things like this in the abstract. The question central to that parable is: "Who is my neighbor?" The young family in this story answers that question in a real, practical, and generous way.
The truth is that the kind of character we see in this family that lives across the street from the woman at the center of this story is what we are all called to do for one another. They responded to the serious circumstances of their neighbor, who has lost her husband, a Navy veteran, and is threatened in her poverty with impending homelessness because her house has been condemned.
Imagine what kind of courage, compassion, generosity, and love it takes to open your house, to have your sons give up their bedroom for the old lady from across the street, and to welcome that wounded neighbor as one of the family. This is what we see here in reality, real decisions, and real actions. And, if we are honest, some of us may feel admiration for this family. Still, others might think it crazy to do something like this, to sacrifice so much for someone who isn't family.
What this young family has done so generously here is show us what we are meant to do for one another. We might wonder here: "What would our society be like if a majority of us understood the idea of who is our neighbor and acted toward one another as this family has in this story?"
But there is a second story here too. And that concerns the loyalty that veterans have for fellow veterans. This veterans group took it as their duty to clean and renovate this Navy veteran's widow's house so that she could live in it again. We veterans do respond to the military ethics of "having each other's six" and "leaving no man behind." That, too, is modeled here in real decisions and real actions.
Steve Hartman's mission is to keep challenging us with these news stories. They really do lift our hearts and minds. They offer us a picture of our "better angels" in real terms. There are probably many stories like this all over the country that never make the news, but they should. In fact, they should be at the top of the news. What would happen if we saw these kinds of behaviors and actions more regularly, instead of constantly being barraged with our failures and often selfish cruelties?
