...reach  out...

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.

If you want happiness for a day, go fishing.

If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. 

If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.
chinese  proverb

The memories I cherish of celebrating birthdays and Hari Raya as a child have nothing to do with dressing up like a princess or eating homemade icing cakes or  enjoying array of different menus on the  specially laid tables.  The moment I loved most was watching my parents  and grandparents dole out ringgit bills to anyone who asked for help. Amidst the drinking, eating, singing, donning elaborate costumes of some of my neighbours' children  and a recounting of the traditional story, lies a lesson of giving that opens  me up to the needs of people that i would never otherwise know. On these special days too, no matter the person, no matter the race, gender, or ethnicity, if someone extends her hand to ask for alms,  we must give what we can.This was my parents ( take up our ancestors') advice.

I am enjoined to remember that while we celebrate, millions of people in the world lack something so basic as water, food, and medicine. On these days we do not walk past a homeless person, or sneer at someone begging on the subway. Today we give and give and give 'til we empty our pockets. I learned this lesson firsthand from my parents. If on every other day poor people knocked on our door in ***, these  special days, my parents left it open, welcoming everyone inside. They sat down, listened to their stories, providing both the solace of an attentive ear and concrete benefits of any money they could scrounge together.

From my parents I learned about the more intangible side of this giving decree. Many commentators explain that besides the commandment to provide money to all those who ask, we also must provide emotional charity. If my parents couldn't give money, they gave their heart, their smile, and their love to everyone who came their way. Built into this act of charity is the emotional statement that  "I care about you". " I care about your welfare." It provides hope as much as it provides money or food. Only a desperate person, one who has nearly given up, begs. That person puts his pride to the side and reluctantly puts out his hand for a sign of help. 

On a day when all the people of the world faced a dire situation, the genocide of its people, i saw redemption at the very last moment. This is the moment of salvation i keep warm, generation after generation, and the one we also share with all of those who are suffering in this world. From that day onwards i learn that it is exactly in such moments of overwhelming joy that we must take a break from regaling, open our doors and invite in those who have to nowhere to go to believe that there is reason hope...

p/s  Silly little lefty liberal that I am, I was a little on the concerned side for those folks being made homeless, and I repeat HOMELESS. I feel nauseous watching the images on the news of children and youths stealing and terrorising with smiles on their faces, destroying their communities without a respect for livelihoods or, more profoundly, life. Is making them homeless going to help? Will this mend one's broken society having more people on the streets? Nevertheless, we only passed through this world, but only once...so lets make our life worth living for...in the name of brotherhood and humanity.  Never ever have a slight thought of rioting...