The column this month was inspired by the holiday spirit: that bubbling-up feeling we get when we ponder family and friends, good cooking, warm hearths (and hearts), and beloved traditions. That holiday spirit is like no other—often a mix of hope, anxiety, and excitement, all at once.
Sometimes our December interactions with other people (watching a tree lighting, browsing last-minute sales, shoveling our sidewalks, wishing strangers “Happy Holidays”) remind us that we’re all in this world together. Helping friends, neighbors, and strangers can further promote the feeling of closeness the winter brings. For example, Margie, my fellow Emergency Hub columnist, offered to help with this month’s column, knowing I was busy. I gladly took her up on it!
I told Margie the seed of my idea for an article: I’d recently had generous neighbors— strangers to me—assist me out in an emergency in a way that touched me, and so I was thinking about how we can, and should, “pay forward” others’ acts of kindness. Margie, unexpectedly, had just had a similar encounter to mine—now it’s story time!
Dana’s story: My car had an unfortunate encounter with some fresh cement when I was about 10 minutes from home. I wasn’t hurt, thank goodness, but my poor VW Golf spilled a lot of oil on the road. During my ordeal, a neighbor couple who had heard the commotion came out to see what had happened. They were kind and understanding and one of them, unprompted, brought out a carton of kitty litter and started containing the spill. The couple, unprompted, also helped secure the area and stayed with me while I made needed phone calls. Their presence kept me from becoming a blubbering wreck, and I am still very grateful to them for their freely offered support (and the cat litter!) while I waited for the cavalry to arrive.
Margie’s story: I was about a block from my home where I was headed after a stressful few hours navigating Seattle traffic trying to get to appointments on time. As I was turning the corner, I noticed two people hovering over a third person on the ground, who was clearly injured from a fall. I rolled down my window and asked if I could be of help—and from the “deer in the headlights” look on their faces, decided the answer was yes. We all worked together to assess if it was safe to get the injured older woman up and to find out if she lived nearby or if she could tell us who to call. Another driver stopped and offered some information about the woman, and we eventually got this very bloody, muddy woman into my van and drove the few blocks to where she lived with her adult daughter—who was very appreciative that they hadn’t called 911 and turned her over to that unsettling experience. Our initial exchange of phone numbers began to include aspects of emotional relief and tenderness, acknowledging the importance of kindness and neighbors helping neighbors, especially in these times of such fear, uncertainty, and a political climate of polarized divisiveness.
Won’t you be my neighbor?
Herein lies the foundation of mutual aid, an age-old practice that long preceded crowdsourcing, GoFundMe, and social media: making time to connect with your neighbors. While easier to do if you are out walking with a dog or a child, it’s not all that challenging to achieve if you pay attention to neighbors outside in a driveway or yard, or getting out of a car. A smile, wave, or hello over time might eventually lead to exchanging of names and addresses, maybe a request to bring in a garbage can or package delivery, perhaps an offer of a ladder or tool to help with a home project—or even an offer to jump-start a car. Inspiring stories of human cooperation occur daily during climate disasters like hurricanes, tornados, floods, and fires. During the initial frightening months of the pandemic, most of us experienced unusual kindness, generosity, and mutual aid. When thinking of ways to pay this abundance forward, it’s easiest and most practical to start locally. (And perhaps soon, while the holiday spirit still possesses us.)
Different ways to help
What would it take for generosity and mutual aid to flow beyond a disaster or holiday season and take up residence in our daily lives with neighbors? One option is to look for small opportunities to help. A few tiny, easy things to consider right on your own street: standing up toppled trash cans, clearing clogged gutters, clearing the sidewalk of fallen branches (and electric scooters), and directing perplexed delivery drivers to hard-to-find addresses.
Another way to harness the holiday giving spirit is by volunteering in your community as a whole, in whichever way makes sense to you. We see evidence of this inclination to give back all around Madison Park and Madison Valley, particularly in the outstanding civic engagement and activities offered by Friends of Madison Park (FOMP), who’ve breathed a new spirit into the idea of a neighborhood community council. And we witness this in our own Madison Park Emergency Hub, a group of rotating volunteers who quietly work behind the scenes focusing on how we’ll try to supply mutual aid during a disaster. An Emergency Hub acts as a form of “stand-up bulletin board” that helps people make connections (offering and receiving assistance and supplies) after a disaster. We Hubsters know that during an emergency, people naturally gravitate toward each other—and we want to be ready for that!
However you interact with your neighbors this season, we hope you’ll consider paying forward any recent generosity you’ve received and getting more involved with your neighbors, neighborhood, and community!
As always, this column is part of Madison Park Emergency Hub’s outreach effort. We’re an all-volunteer org focused on neighbors helping neighbors in an emergency. If you’d like to get involved with a group of neighbors who want to help people and contemplate disasters, it’s a light lift AND a lot of fun. Mail us at madparkhub@gmail.com with questions or to get on our mailing list.