How many times have we heard this quote from adults? It’s been drilled into our heads so many times it has become a platitude. How many of us actually follow this maxim? You would be surprised at how many people don’t follow this. Or would you be surprised? If everyone followed this rule, then there would be no bullies and there would be no tears. Or maybe bullies do want to be treated badly… It is never alright for someone to be in tears because of what someone has said or done.
There are many morals in life that people sometimes forget. Not taking the last piece of pizza (selflessness), turning in your homework on time (responsibility), helping others in need, the simple act of kindness… in this world everyone is looking out for themselves and are too wrapped up in their own world to care about other people. In the school I go to, there is this club called MESH (Moral Education Starts Here) and it is basically the buddy system. This school goes from 4th through 12th grade, so the little kids gets paired up with an older student and the older students teach their little buddies about morals. This is the kind of system that we all need nowadays, making sure that everyone behaves and acts like good human beings.
In this blog dedicated especially to morals, there is one story that touched my heart and set it soaring. In “What goes Around Comes Around,” a poor man noticed an old lady stopped on the side of the road because of a flat tire. He stopped and assisted her with her problem. When asked how much she owed him, he aptly refused and told her if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone in need, she should give them help and to think of him when she did so.
The old lady pulled into a small café and an eight month pregnant waitress warmly gave her a napkin to dry off her hair. The old lady wondered how someone with so little could give so much and can still have a smile on her face. So she paid the waitress with a hundred dollar bill and quickly left before the waitress had enough time to get her change. When the waitress came back, she found a napkin that said, “You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.” And there were four more hundred dollar bills. After a long day, the waitress pulled into bed and kissed her husband, saying everything was going to be all right now. And guess who the husband was? That’s right, he was the poor man who had kindly helped the old lady with her flat tire.
Some people are skeptics and say that this will never happen to them. Helping someone will not get you anywhere or anything, so why bother? Why don’t you try it out? Start the chain of kindness and help someone in need and see what happens. Nothing might happen for a few years, but it will come back to you in subtle ways, may it be good luck in life or just plain happiness for helping other. In Buddhism, this is called karma. The reward might not be as extreme as getting five hundred dollars, but it can be as simple as going to sleep at night knowing someone’s life improved just a little because you lent out a helping hand.
Helping someone in need and showing acts of kindness are good morals that everyone should learn and practice. It also ties in with “treat others the way you would want to be treated” because if you help someone in need, the next time you are in a sticky situation there is a greater chance that someone will help you out.
What other morals do you think that people should learn and practice more? What good character traits do you like most about a person? To close off with the school motto, “Character counts!”
Go check out this website; there are a lot of good moral stories and it is just plain heart- touching. :) http://academictips.org/blogs/what-goes-around-comes-around/
picture: http://www.marriedtothesea.com/013009/last-piece-is-all-yours.gif
