When Helping Hands Go Numb
No one knows who was first afflicted with the numbing tingle that starts in the palm of the left hand and spreads outward until the entirety of the hand is incapacitated. It is also a mystery why the illness targets the Helping hand rather than the other Working hand. Some have considered that the Working hand is essential and so we have been lucky.
The disease spread rapidly across the globe until everyone's Helping hand became incapacitated. Soon people only focused on work. Those in need could still request the support of the community by extending their Working hand in the form of a plea, but everyone was busy being right and working and no one had a Helping hand left to grasp or to give.
Then one day something strange happened. A boy named Teddy who was not quite young enough to be considered a child and not quite old enough to be called a man was walking to his landscaping job. Teddy was carrying two shovels in his Working hand for each of the kinds of digging he may need to do. When he came to a turn in the road he found a man older than himself standing there with his right Working hand outstretched and empty in way of a plea. Teddy who did not tend to overthink things considered that perhaps he could make do with just one shovel. And so it was that he offered the man one of his shovels and invited him to come along to the jobsite.
When they got to the jobsite it just so happened that the customer had asked if the landscapers could finish the job even earlier than planned, and so the foreman was glad for the extra help and put the newcomer to work right away. This was such a fortunate turn of events for the man with the outstretched hand that when he left the jobsite that day he had an offer to continue working with the landscaping company.
The man spoke with Teddy before they left for the day. He returned the borrowed shovel and thanked him for his help. He said that he was so encouraged that he wanted to do as Teddy had done for someone else in need of help. The man used his earnings from that day to buy food and two shovels.
On the following day when he was on his way to the jobsite, he saw someone with their Working hand outstretched and empty. Into the outstretched hand he placed the extra shovel that he had bought and he offered to lead the person to a jobsite where the shovel could be put to good use.
The pandemic of numb Helping hands continues to this day, but more and more people are following Teddy's example and using their Working hands to share solutions, overcome limitations and thrive as a community. This has led to the slogan "The right are best served when no one gets left behind."