I like to think that I’m “good people” and I therefore have a very important job to do. You see, I reckon good people need to stand up and help others, whenever and wherever they can. No matter what. It’s why we’re here and why we can sometimes see solutions when other people can only see chaos.
I get that good people often don’t know how to help. That we feel that someone else is better qualified. I understand that we’re worried about our own safety. Or that we feel like it’s none of our business. I get that we have to put our children first. That we’re worried we might embarrass ourselves. I get that we don’t feel strong enough. I get that we might get turned away.
I get that we are scared.
Food for thought: To be a good mum, raise yourself first
Stand up anyway
What I don’t get is why good people don’t just push all that away and stand up for someone anyway. As long as your own life or the lives of your loved ones are not at stake, there is nothing more important than standing up against something you know isn’t right. It’s probably even more important than standing up for something you know is true.
When help is needed: please, please, please help.
When others see your courage, it will light their own courage.
I promise you that if you leap to someone’s aid, you will not leap alone. It takes a very courageous person to put aside all their fears and be the first to do something, but be that good person anyway. When others see your courage, it will light their own courage and they will be only a few tiny steps behind you. That’s the plan, anyway.
You’ll never leap alone
Imagine if we all raised our children to believe that they will never leap alone. If we told them, “When you see someone being a bully, yell loud and clear to everyone that what they are doing isn’t right.” And if we also told them, “If you see someone standing up to a bully, go and stand beside them and make your voice even louder than theirs.”
I promise you that if you leap to someone’s aid, you will not leap alone.
Imagine if our kids believed both those things to be true: that they should always help and that they will never help alone. If they could know with utter conviction that every good kid around them would rally with them to shout a bully down. If they believed that, they would have the courage to be that.
Try this: How to help your child be more assertive
We’ve got your back
If every woman and man was raised to be those kids, then every person would know that every other good person has their back. We might still be putting ourselves at risk. We might still feel vulnerable and scared. But we would know that we would risk together and we wouldn’t be vulnerable and scared for long. We would stand down injustice, unfairness and cruelty together.
I like to think that I am that person and I am raising my kids to be that person too. I have always leapt and I have never been let down. Good people have always had my back. I have put myself in risky, dangerous situations to help others, but I have never regretted it and I would do it again, every time, for as long as I’m here. I know from experience that it only takes one person to act for all the other good people to act too. One person who believes that helping others is more important than just about anything else in the world. One person who is prepared to dismiss all the I shouldn’ts, I can’ts, I’m nots and what ifs and just leap.
Please be that person. Raise that person.