Pride

Welcome back. Today's post is not about track #2 from U2's Unforgettable Fire album, awesome though it is. It's about other stuff.

Isabel Therese Marmalejo was born October 3 at 16:38. Clare has pics at her blog, and, I'm sure, will continue to post them. Another arrow in the quiver, as they say, and that is a very, very great thing.

In keeping with the theme of today's title, I want to recall an incident that happened yesterday at mass. Because Anastasia was full of energy, I was playing toddler-control in the vestibule. When I arrived back from Holy Communion, I noticed an elderly man, kneeling in front of a pew in the vestibule, struggling to get up. But he couldn't. I came by, asked him if he needed some help, and not waiting for a reply, gave him my free hand.

Unable to lift this surprisingly heavy old man, I helped set himself back down, and went to grab an usher, even though, out of pride, he tried to shoo me off with "I'm ok." Not buying it for a minute I looked around hastily, and thinking that the ushers were probably too old to help anyway, I grabbed a big dude in front of me. Both of us couldn't lift him up, and so a third dude joined us and we were able to finally set him on a pew.

I just wanted to state that I felt priveleged to help this devout old man, who took seriously kneeling after Holy Communion on a stone floor, even though he couldn't get up and probably wasn't sure about it to begin with.

I am glad and fortunate that I took the initiative. My first thoughts were "someday this may be me." No one else seemed to notice, and that bothered me a little bit, because people need people to help them sometimes, and apparently no one in a crowd of 50 saw that this guy wasn't going to make it or hurt himself trying.

So this brings me to my moral: If we are not aware, we miss opportunities to practice charity, not to mention protect ourselves and other people from accidents or worse. Practicing awareness daily allows us to be better people and better citizens, giving us the capacity to step into the moment of truth and make a positive difference.

Over and Out,

--Nick-Dog