[ Golden Gater Online - October 23, 1997 ]
Jason L. Ables
Staff writer
Lately I have come to realize that even if I am unsure about the existence of god, there may be angels among us.
The notion first hit me upon meeting a hospice nurse named Phyllis. She works with people who are dying with an unfathomable grace and compassion. After seeing her work, I thought she must be an angel.
I might have never thought of it again but for a recent Associated Press story. A group of AIDS researchers asked the Food and Drug Administration for permission to inject themselves with an experimental AIDS vaccine. They say the severity of the epidemic and the need for live human research data far outweigh the danger of possible infection posed by the vaccine, which is derived from the HIV virus itself.
In other words, they are willing to risk death by AIDS to develop a vaccine for you and me. When I read that, I just sat back and thought, "Damn, what guts." And then, it hit me -- hey, they must be angels too.
But the kicker was when I realized my friend Mark might be an angel.
For the last few years, he has spent countless (and I do mean countless) hours trying to save Headwaters Forest up in Humboldt County. The ancient forest has trees that would have begun their majestic life about the time Attila the Hun was zooming around on horseback. That, my friends, is hella old.
Some people would like to chop them down, make patio furniture and fencing out of them. Not Mark. He sees the forest as a sacred thing, belonging to no one, so it rightfully should remain unspoiled for all.
I bring all this up because I think we all know someone who could qualify as an angel. There are more of them around than cynics care to admit, yet it led me to wonder: What about the rest of us?
Is it necessary to rise to the level of angelhood typified by the Phyllis and Marks? Honestly, I don't think most of us can. The hours are too long, the personal price too high.
I tried to be a big, grandiose angel once. But I bombed. I tried teaching English to illiterate adults. I was doing okay too, for a while. But I got busy with my own school/work/life/etc. and had to stop (or so I told myself).
Certainly most us rise above the norm occasionally, but the persistent way the people mentioned above pursue doing the right thing is a humbling, extraordinary sight. It is as if they had wings showing in broad daylight.
Now, even if a full set of wings ain't in the cards for some of us, that does not mean we can't earn a feather every once in a while. And if we can, we should.
I tell you, I truly believe in the power of small things adding up.
There are a couple hundred million people in this country. If just half of them did just one extra, small good deed, just once a year, that would be almost three good deeds a second -- all day, every day.
I cannot help but think that we, as people, if we had three good deeds happening every second, we just couldn't help but be better off. And it is only one good deed per person, once a year. Who knows what cumulative effect all those deeds might have.
Then maybe, even if we can't rise up on our own to the heights occupied by angels like Phyllis and Mark, maybe as a group, we can cooperatively soar.
[ Golden Gater - October 23, 1997 ]