…never hurts to ask!
Hello All,
I am a modest man trying to live a simple modest life and help as many people as I can along the way. But I am a teacher first and if there is a lesson that can be learned from the following story then that is why I am sharing it and for no other reason. I have been sharing this story in the kids classes especially to teach them that it is important to “simply
ask” and lend a helping hand.
This happened to me Monday March 5th at around 10:25am:
I was walking to the dojo to start my day when I heard a woman yelling that someone had fallen. I briefly thought to myself “people fall all the time and there was clearly already someone there to help. Besides, it was inside an apartment building and how useful could I really have been.” My curiosity and general concern for peoples well being got the better of me so I ignored those common thoughts and crossed the street just to investigate. I opened the apartment door, walked through the “buzzer room” and over to the security door. I could see two elderly women standing in the lobby near the elevator and one of them was slightly hunched over bleeding profusely from her head onto the floor. I knocked on the door to see if I could assist. The woman that was helping had a broken wrist and no cell phone. She was able to let me and then I took it from there. I got her to sit down and covered her head with a clean cloth, I called the paramedics and even her son-in-law to inform him of the accident. It was then that she informed me that she was on blood thinners due to a pace maker and was worried about all of the blood she had lost.
Of course I lied to her in order to keep her calm by telling her that it wasn’t that much blood and the paramedics would be here soon. What had happened to her was she tripped getting into the elevator and hit her head on the railing inside. She is 88 years
old and required 12 stitches to close the wound.
When the paramedics showed up they of course took over but because they couldn’t get the gurney up and down the stairs they had to walk her out the truck. I was actually asked to carry all of their gear that they had brought from the truck back which included their oxygen tank and medical supplies. Shortly after that I left my business card in case there was anything else I could do for them. I asked for nothing because it was a simple civil duty to help out and her health was my reward. A couple of days later the woman with the broken wrist came in to the dojo to give me a thank you gift and tell me that I saved the woman’s life. Although that might not be true, to her, it was. This is truly a case of “you may only be one person to the world but you may be the world to one person.” For those brief few minutes I was everything and it was a wonderful feeling that money could never buy. If I had left my place 60 seconds earlier or later I would not have heard the woman yelling; I was meant to be there at that specific time to help.
The message that I want to educate the students with is this: it would have been very very easy for me to keep walking and assume that everything was alright and someone else would help. I didn’t and I would never want ANY of my students to. The message is that it never hurts to ask but ignorance can kill. That simple act of kindness not only helped
the hurt woman but restored faith in the other woman that there are still good people in the world. I know that because she exclaimed it several times to whoever would listen. She said to someone “this man was just walking by and wanted to help…thank God he showed up…there are still good people out there.”
I thank the heavens everyday that I get to help someone because I know that I received so much help when I was younger. Please share this story with your children and help them
understand the importance of “lending a hand” and “it never hurts to ask”. That is my message with them this week and I hope that you reinforce it at home.
Thank you and have a glorious day!!
Sensei Jonathan Kenney