Compassion

I learned a lesson on compassion today.

Today is the day our local banking giant releases the dreaded news on who stays and who goes. I have been on tenterhooks for my girlfriend whom I have known for just over 10 months. I have always known that she's a great person - pretty, zany, sincere and God-loving. But I did not know that she has a heart of gold too.

Through our email correspondence, she shares that she is not on the retrenchment list but her unit's despatch guy will have to leave. Under the tense situation, I had expected her to heave a sigh of relief and move on.

But no, she asks rhetorically why it must be this guy to leave when he has a family and young children to feed? She would rather she got the axe because she is young and resilient; notwithstanding that her wedding is just next year and the bills are meanwhile mounting.

We all know why the despatch is asked to leave. He has worked with the bank for merely a year and he is at the lowest of the food chain. But would his leaving make any difference to the bank's bottom line?

What if pay cut is exercised instead? Can they make do with a little less and help others keep their jobs?? A pay cut for some of these guys might mean the difference between a Cartier watch and a Guess watch for Christmas but for lower level folks, getting the axe literally means the difference between food and starvation for the family.

While I thank God for answering my prayer that my friend gets to keep her job, I'm also thankful that he has also shown me what a truly beautiful friend I have. Through her, I learned that compassion comes from the heart. And like Roald Dahl, I too value kindness above all other qualities in life.