Compassion should be a top priority now and in new year
In the last 12 months, we’ve had our share of good and bad times here in our region.
As another year draws to a close, we have the opportunity to look back. We are still faced with the struggles on the local level concerning the opioid crisis that is still exacting a tragic toll. We look at some of the triumphs like meeting some amazing people doing great things throughout Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties. We watched in the bittersweet moments when old, familiar businesses closed and left us with memories of days gone by, and then we anticipated a fresh start when new ones opened. New faces joined municipal and county government. Some residents moved away from the area while other families settled in for a new start.
One could say we’ve had a pretty typical small-town America year.
It leaves us to wonder what may be in store for us in 2020. But before we celebrate that ball dropping on another year behind us, those last few days of December, as we gather with our families and friends, always give us time to reflect and to relish in the magic of what the Christmas season really should be about.
Christmas is about gifts. However, it’s never about getting wrapped up in how many there will be or how much they cost. In the true holiday spirit of the season, it’s about the gifts for others, or in other words, the act of giving not for any other reason but simply because someone needs the help.
Gina D’Auria, an administrator with the Fayette County Children and Youth Services (CYS) in Uniontown, recently brought to our attention a desperate request from a youngster.
D’Auria said in the midst of a holiday drive conducted by Fayette County CYS to collect donations to give to families in the area, she learned of an 8-year-old boy who had a special request. He asked for a kidney for his father for Christmas.
“He told the worker that Santa did not have enough magic in his globe to get him a kidney,” D’Auria said.
Faced with an opportunity to receive just about anything on his wish list, the young boy, even at the tender age of 8 years old and with a compassion stronger than some adults exhibit, was thinking about the well being of a family member instead.
It is certainly a story that should make each and every one of us take pause, re-evaluate what is important, and then make the selfless decisions that can make a difference to others. More importantly, it is a story that should inspire all of us to not only take lessons from it during the holiday season, but look to the new year with the same compassion as this little boy has shown to think of others before we get caught up in thinking what might be best for ourselves.
Yes, we all have much to learn from this young boy.