You probably looked at the title of this post and wondered for a moment whether I was half asleep when I wrote it. I wasn’t. “Ar scath a cheile a mhaireas na daoine” translated says “It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.” It is an old Irish proverb that I learned from a very wise group of musicians (read: Jars of Clay. *Be sure to check out their song above*).
Two events, one very small and the other rather large, caused this thought to cross my mind today. Strolling around campus with the intention of taking a few pictures (read: attempting photography and modeling), my friend Priska and I came across a girl carrying the smallest little puppy I’ve ever seen.
Note: *I am not really a dog person, much less a canine connoisseur, so this puppy may have been average in size, but seemed very small to me*.
In any case we stopped to check it out, taking turns holding little Beau and taking pictures. Thinking over the experience, as I looked at the pictures later on, I realized how frail the little guy was and how much he needs someone to look after him. Lucky for Beau, being a puppy in addition to being that size draws in a number of contenders for the position not just of provider, but of friend. I thought to myself if a little animal without a soul needs us, than how much more we need one another. How is it that dogs got to be man’s best friend? Could we not count on one another?
Now I have nothing against dogs or dog lovers, and some people might feel that I’m taking the expression out of context, since “man” in the context of “man’s best friend”, most likely refers to mankind. I won’t argue against that. However I will ask that you consider this: Why do people (particularly in our nation) feel more compelled to find food and shelter for animals in need, than for people in need?
I don’t have any hard facts or statistics to support that claim, but honestly I don’t need any. Ask yourself if you were to spot a homeless man on the street and a homeless dog, which of the two would you be more likely to attempt to help?
I’ll come now to the second event that got me thinking about all this today: the disaster in Japan. The death toll is currently 236 and rising, expected to exceed 1000.
Between the death and destruction, people there are in desperate need of shelter in every sense of the word. Will we leave them abandoned in their immediate time of need? Of course not. Nothing opens our hearts and our wallets simultaneously like natural disaster. Sadly it seems that our eyes remain unopened. My concern is that we leave them abandoned when the immediacy dissipates and the news of Japan’s devastation is no longer newsworthy. Of course there is also the role of politics that is extended with America’s “helping hand”. But I won’t go into that.
I lived in New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina and saw firsthand how that went. Only a year ago, Haiti faced circumstances similar to those in Japan right now and saw how swiftly and how completely sympathy faded, once the story was no longer making headlines. That is not to say that there are no individuals or organizations striving to make a difference there every day or even just today. However, between the time of the earthquake in Haiti and the Tsunami in Japan, the list of countries that have been affected by natural disasters has grown rapidly. Each new country affected becomes news and leaves the others as “old news”. In journalism we refer to news like natural disasters as “hard news”, which is heavily driven by time and immediacy. Puppies fall under the umbrella of “soft news” and stories about them are “human interest” stories, meaning that stories about puppies never get old.
As you consider all of this, think of how you would feel, if you were in a place of need and found that people were more willing to help a cute little puppy than a starving man. The shelter we were meant to provide for one another is literal and figurative. As you leave your computer ask yourself who has found refuge in the shelter of your arms so far? Who else can look to you for shelter? And who can you depend on for shelter? If you find the list to be any less than the whole world, work on making it grow to that point.
P.S. If you liked this song, check out this artist:
Jars of Clay ßI love this band!
Also, be sure to check out the shelter resources for lyrics on the shelter album, essays inspired by the project and the songs, and help playing a few of the songs on the guitar.