The Go-Somewhere-Else Attitude

For some purposes, all the people in the world could be put into two categories: those we know and those we don’t know. But regardless of whom we know or whom we don’t know, there is this thought soberly to consider, and it pertains to every person whether we know him or not:
Whoever he is, wherever he is, whatever he is, he is just as important to him as we are to us. If he is lonely, his loneliness is not necessarily different to him from what ours is to us. If he is ill, his illness is not necessarily different to him from what ours is to us. If he is hungry, his hunger is not necessarily different to him from what ours is to us. If he needs help, it is as important to him to have help as it would be to us under the same or similar circumstances.
But in the somewhat impersonal way in which we live our lives, we may sometimes insulate ourselves from the feeling that others have some claim upon us, and in our various occupations and professions and pursuits, we could find ourselves too easily sending them to the next counter or the next window, or sending them to someone else, or telling them to come back tomorrow, or next week, or turning them down on technicalities.
Our Savior said some sobering words that could be applied to this subject: “Or what man is there of you whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” Indeed, who of us, when others really need us, would be justified in complacently assuming a “next-window” or an “after-hours” attitude.
As to the youth who needs guiding, the child who needs finding, the distressed who need assuring, the sorrowing who need comforting, the sick who need saving, the traveler, the next-door neighbor, or just plain everyday people who present themselves for direction, for service, for assistance—we all need such consideration sometime, and we all appreciate the personal touch, the human touch, the kindliness and accommodation, the putting out for others.
This sentence is accredited to Albert Schweitzer: “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” And when next we feel coming upon us that “go-somewhere-else” attitude, we well would remember that everyone—every person—is as important to him as I am to me.