Corporate Social Review Magazine 1st Quarter 2012 | Page 18

crib NOTEs
by Paul S Rowlston

Neighbourhood
Watch
“Love thy neighbour”, right?

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all me crazy, but I don’t think you have to be
in the place of worship of your choice to think
this sounds like a pretty solid piece of core
programming for a half decent life.
Indeed, as with so many of the basic tenets of faith,
the idea that you might live your life with a sense of
concern for the people with whom you share a particular piece of earth seems to me to be a no-brainer.
But, as our understanding of the world has expanded
to encompass the entire globe and not simply the bit
of land that hangs between where the sun rises and
the sun sets; and as that self-same globe has also
shrunk to the point where we can travel across half of
it in a single flight and see news from its most distant
corners in real time, the question becomes just who
is my neighbour?
A few years ago my radar was up and spinning. For
various reasons too boring to detail, I was attuned and
attenuated to the broken edges of our rainbow nation. Everywhere I looked all I saw were outstretched
hands, at every traffic light was a fellow human being
whose need was greater than I was able to meet, at
every major intersection were ‘Urban Entrepreneurs’
too innumerable to mention – every one of them desperate for even a small percentage of the ‘market
share’ on offer before the lights turned green.
One afternoon on my way from something of no real
consequence to something I quickly forgot, I remember looking at a humble man surrounded by the labours of his humble trade and fighting the urge to
cry. This man carved stone figures – elephants I think
– each representing more effort, more creative ability and more sweat than any given working day ever
demanded of me. But the fruits of his wares were not
sold on consignment to some trendy curiosity shop,
they were not traded in the busy hustle and bustle
of a colourful market; no, he sat at the side of an unimportant suburban road and hoped enough people
would stop each day to simply provide for his most
basic needs. A man’s art on sale for the price of bread
and milk.

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And here’s the thing. I didn’t stop, I didn’t buy, I didn’t
reach out to him. I was overwhelmed by grief, by the
knowledge that even if I bought every stone carving
I could afford, filled every outstretched hand with all
the money I had, even then my efforts would make no
real difference to the mountain of need around me.
And so, chilled by my own grief – frozen into inaction
by it, I turned my head, I looked away and I waited for
the lights to change.
Not long after that I found myself asking Jacques van
Schoor (a friend – a man with a mind far more impressive than my own and a deeper connection to the
God of his understanding)“In a world as full of need
as ours, where every need is on brutal display for us
all to see, just who is my neighbour?”
Jacques didn’t even pause, he didn’t stop to think, he
just told it to me plain. “Pick one” he said. “Pick one”.
And it really is that simple.
The overwhelming need we see in the world around
us is not an excuse to do nothing. Even Bill Gates
and Warren Buffet, their fortunes combined, understand this simple truth. They picked a cause and that
is where their efforts are focused. None of us can do
everything, no-one can fix all the ills of the world. But
we can all do something. And we all must.
And the great beauty of this simple truth is that there
really are no other rules. Take a look around you, decide what you can do and where you can do it … and
just do it.
It might be that you elect to give money to a charitable
organisation, perhaps you will decide to donate your
time to a cause you believe in. Or maybe, like me,
you’ll do the simple things that are presented to you
– buy some food for an old man who has none, share
a meal with a stranger, when you have it put money
into those outstretched hands. And when you don’t,
meet their eyes, recognise their humanity, tell them
next time … and mean it.
It does not matter who you choose to think of as your
neighbour or how you choose to express your love
– just as long as you give what is in your gift to give,
do what you have the ability to do and never forget
that there, but for the grace of God, go you.

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