Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Have I Done Any Good...


I was watching the Sunday morning broadcast of General Conference last night (that's the beauty of satellite TV & being able to record stuff to watch it when you want) and listened to President Monson's talk about doing good. I actually saw the "challenge" in the Ensign about how he wanted everyone to do something good as a gift for his birthday. I had wanted to get my Primary class to do that and even wrote a letter home to the parents about it, but for whatever reason never got any further with it than that. I was feeling a little guilty as I saw the little montage of all the things kids/people had sent to show what they had done because I totally planned on doing that with the primary class, but....
Anyway, I was still feeling that challenge for myself to try to do something good every day. I guess blogging about it is my way of publicly acknowledging that I plan to do that and it started today. I had thought about it last night and made a commitment to try to do something good today. I even remembered that commitment this morning as I was driving to work, which is pretty amazing for me to actually remember something the next day!
Then of course I promptly forgot it for the rest of the day. I was driving home later that afternoon and realized that I actually had done something good today!!
We had a little power outage this morning at the school. The main transformer blew at about 7:30 am. We had about 1/3 the power we normally have which meant no computers, no intercom, and very limited lighting. We did manage to get through the whole school day, but Seattle City light said they had to shut the power completely off 10 minutes after school let out so they could do the repairs. True to their word, the power went out abruptly at 2:45pm.
Unfortunately one little 6th grade Somali boy happened to be struggling with his stuck locker and worrying about missing bus when the power suddenly went out. It was the literal straw...he was so upset he started to cry about all of it--stuck locker, missed bus, dark school. Now came the debate about who could drive him home. You are supposed to have a special "license" in order to drive someone home--which I don't have. Unfortunately though all the people who did have the special license were already driving another student home or had meetings. Apparently in emergency cases someone without a special license can drive students home. That was me! My good deed in the world today was to drive the little boy home!
Here's hoping that there is some good deed I can do every day. (Not that I am going to blog about it daily, it just seems like a worthy goal) Most days it probably won't be anything as dramatic as today, but it seems like just trying would make the world a little brighter!

3 comments:

Lost Woman said...

Oh, poor little guy. Nothing like being in a new country with the lights off and no way home.

It is a great challenge finding something good to do for someone else. I don't suppose getting out of pajamas alone really counts as something for someone else.

I'll have to think on it.

The Desiree said...

Good on you mate! My good dead for the day, not beating my kids. Hey,that counts, doesn't it?

crazy lady said...

Ah ha! My good deed for the day was teaching Alicia how to sew. That involved cutting fabric, showing her how to line up things, thread the sewing machine... She did a great job. I must be a fantastic teacher. Oh- ok. It was a really easy project and she is pretty smart. But hey! I did it. The fact that we got to play with Korven was a pretty decent bounus I must say...
And WHY can't you post your deeds for the day? How's about a weekly recount if every day is too ardorous? I will if you will!
(Ah ha! the glove has been thrown down and I know how competitive you are! Miss scrabble queen! :0))