Potential

This morning I drove to work and stopped at the lights of a large intersection coming into Dunedin. There sitting on the corner, was a friendly looking Maori gentleman on a camping chair accompanied by a very large cardboard sign. It read: "Hi, my name is John and I'm looking for work to support my family. Please show your support". I tooted my horn and waved excitedly to him. This seemed to cheer him up. I gave him the thumbs up and drove away at the green light.

Now normally we think about this a minute or so and say well good on him and that'd be that. I thought there must be more I can do for him. Going through my contacts in my head thinking whether there'd be someone who could help him. I also decided to ring the local radio station More fm and tell them John was sitting there and whether they could mention it on the air to help him out. I will also phone someone in the building industry who I needed to speak to today anyway and mention it.

Small gestures can make big differences. If we don't do anything we will know for sure nothing will happen. I think it's very courageous of John to sit at an intersection exposed to the whole city asking for work. It may not be an easy thing to do. People might say funny things. We simply don't know. It take s a lot of humility and possible desperation to do what he did.

But the simple truth is: we are best to help each other out as all of us can fall on hard times. If you know you could make a difference, why decide to leave it alone? Make your small difference today, it may lead to much more tomorrow.