Why do people treat one another better during and after a storm? And how can that tendency become our reason for hopefulness?
Most of us benefited from, participated in, or at least observed a sudden surge of kindness between strangers during the snowstorms we had last week. H.J. Lindley wrote a letter to the editor to thank an “angel person … who shoveled my walkway from my front steps to the curb.”
Whoever helped Lindley did their deed quietly and anonymously — but not uncommonly. You could see similar good deeds on literally every street corner.
Even strangers passing on sidewalks are more apt to engage one another after events like last week. “How about this weather?” If you’ve ever been camping during a huge storm, this all seems familiar. It’s not uncommon to share warmth and comfort with neighbors after a good rain.
You have dry firewood, but your matches got soaked. Somebody else has a lighter and a few cans of beans. Add a guitar or some kazoos. Presto, it’s Kumbaya around the campfire — perfect strangers sharing a perfect meal. It wouldn’t have happened — or it wouldn’t have happened so naturally — without the storm.
Our “stranger danger” reflex yields to something deeper when a calamity strikes. Our more primal instinct emerges to help one another, or to ask for help if we need it. Viewed against a formidable adversary, we’re suddenly on the same team, sharing the same fate, working toward a common goal.
During normal times, we focus on the differences between ourselves. But when the skies open up, or the power lines snap, or a tree falls across the street, we react to the adversity by watching out for one another. Catastrophe recontextualizes relationships.
Historically and biologically speaking, what we call “normal” has been anything but. Life has been a constant struggle for most of humanity, most of the time. Our most natural reactions — to shovel a walkway, to write a letter to the editor — make us better, both individually and collectively.
As the Democratic field for the 2020 presidential race takes shape, many hopefuls intend to highlight the challenges ahead posed by climate change. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee plans to put the issue at the center of his campaign. As Register-Guard columnist Bob Doppelt has been saying for years, the climate crisis can become an opportunity, if our leaders frame it that way.
Climate change has been a slow-moving catastrophe for decades, but now it’s appearing in more dramatic ways: wildfires, storm surges, droughts and deluges. It won’t be long before these isolated effects begin to converge in our experience and imagination, revealing its scope and singularity.
Then we’ll need leaders who can tell us which way to turn. It won’t be hard to persuade humanity to pull together. We’ve seen recently and locally how naturally that can occur.
Large-scale adversity can motivate us to do great things. Even our modest efforts can have great effects when we join together in collective action. Whether we contribute a shovel, or a pen, or a can of beans — when we share, there’s always been enough.
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Don Kahle (fridays@dksez.com) writes a column each Friday for The Register-Guard and blogs at www.dksez.com.
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