By Patric Hedlund

Seniors from Frazier Mountain High School were invited during May to submit an essay about ‘Compassion’ to Ruth Handy, who founded the Jizo Peace Center in the Pine Mountain community. The senior with the winning submission would win $300 in scholarship money.

No submissions were received from local teens. But teens in Los Angeles accepted the challenge to consider how compassion has touched their lives.

Handy said in an interview on Saturday, May 30 that she will try offering the opportunity to FMHS students again next year.

Maybe you know someone who would like to earn $300 for thoughtful writing. The essay will be published.

Here’s one of the winning essays, submitted by a student of Garfield High School. It was awarded $300 by Jizo Peace Center. The award was created in honor of Handy’s parents.

Compassion

By Megaly Reta

Compassion can mean various things to different people, but in my eyes compassion means having a noble, caring heart and mindset.

If everyone would treat each other with compassion, the world would be a joyous place.

For example, I remember last summer. My family and I were going on a camping trip to Santa Barbara beach when unfortunately our car decided to stop in the middle of the freeway. As we waved for help, no one was nice enough to help us. Sad to say, but not even our own race, Mexican Americans.

After being stuck on the freeway, in the middle of nowhere, an Asian family decided to help us out and give us a hand. Even though my dad couldn’t fully communicate with them, since he doesn’t speak English, they were nice enough to help us.

I did translate and told them what was going on with our car and how we needed to pass a current to get the car working. The family that decided to help us was so polite.

Although they didn’t have to do it, they felt compassionate about us.

They were also gracious enough to offer us food, but my family didn’t want to take it since they had done so much for us. They insisted, and so we took it.

When they were leaving my dad told me to go over to give them twenty dollars and to say how thankful we were. They were a really humble Asian family, but they didn’t accept the money.

I will always remember this kind act of compassion.

So what does this story say about compassion? Having compassion can make other people’s suffering go away. If one is compassionate toward someone, we will help each other out.

After all, we are all humans and we should all lend a helping hand when we can. Who knows, you might be in that situation one day yourself.

If there was a more compassionate outlook on how we treat other people; our lives would be greatly improved.

First, a lot of people wouldn’t be suffering as much. Second, one could feel delighted to have helped someone out. Our minds would be in good health.

Most importantly, the world would be a peaceful place. Whether people are beautiful and friendly or unattractive and disruptive, ultimately they are human beings. Like oneself, they want happiness and do not want suffering. Furthermore, their right to overcome suffering and be happy is equal to our own. As Albert Schweitzer said “The purpose of human life is to serve—to show compassion and the will to help others.”

Photo captions:

Ruth Handy

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This is part of the June 5, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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