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Finding The Best In Us
Written by: Ralph Twombly
Published: December 2012
The holidays are here and like most of you I have no idea what happened to the year. But as I was thinking about what might be of value to write about, it is hard not to think about the recent senseless loss of life in Newtown, Conn. Little children and brave adults cut down unexpectedly and for no good reason beyond a deranged mind and easy access to guns. I won't bore you with my views on either. I would like to share my view on the individuals and the communities that rise to the level of hero in the aftermath.In a time of growing concern about how social media polarizes our children with the steady barrage of bad news on TV, has it occurred to you that we are doing a pretty darn good job of taking care of each other? It occurs to me that our ability to take care of one another is stronger than I could have ever imagined. Here are a couple of examples.
Power of Community
How deep is the pain?
Somehow all that good doesn’t seem to equal the pain and misery that people experience, does it? What could possibly replace the loss of 20 children? How can you even imagine the pain, emptiness and the grief?
The Nuremburg Trials and the capture of Adolf Eichmann didn’t and still doesn’t feel equal to the loss of six million souls. How could evil win out over good?
Reinhold Niebuhr says it best (in The Nature and Destiny of Man): Niebuhr received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Among his most influential books are Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man,
Sin touches every human action, which paralyzes us from hoping to “solve” problems. Every “solution” only engenders new (unintentional) problems. No action can erase sin. No policy can save us from tragedies. All that we can do, then, is acknowledge the inevitability of tragedy, that we might be prepared when it wounds us once more.”
Volunteering, giving, being busy in the good work of helping others is all we have and it saves us. We reach out to help even a little. It is our equalizer. After 911, many vowed to fly more because we were not going to let terror control our lives. Somehow we needed to balance out the bad with strength. We talk to each other and when we are through talking we say, “Why don’t we do something?” and we do. Never have there been more agencies to help or more ways we as individuals can give our blessings of money, food, shelter and love. Children will continue to have yard sales, and volunteers will continue to travel from far away to simply make a little difference. Famous artists will gather again because they can, and want to find a way to equal out the evil. No agenda beyond simply to help will be found. Balance is what we are looking for, and it occurred to me that it is exactly why we will be okay.
We act because we know it is our duty to act. We know that the only way to make a wrong right is to do something honorable, gentle, kind and generous.
It is no mystery that 2013 will have its share of tragedies. I hope you are not personally touched by them and I also hope that the places we live in continue to be the places where people act and don’t simply talk about acting. The theme always seems to be the same - each of us needs to lead. We need to find the strength to think beyond ourselves and do what is right. We seem to be doing it better and better.
From all of us at Priority Learning thank you for a great 2012. We look forward to learning from you and having you in our lives in 2013 and beyond!
Warmest regard for a joyous holiday season!!
Ralph Twombly
In the 20 years since starting Priority Learning, Ralph has facilitated countless learning experiences and has conducted training for thousands of managers and leaders. With over 30 years of leadership development and organizational development background and work, Ralph continues to build relationships with client companies all over the U.S.
