After my “Intelligent Angels” article, I got a number of feedbacks from friends, colleagues and family. Some inspiring, some intriguing and some depressing!
A friend of mine was on her way to Starbucks to buy some coffee when she spotted a 14-year-old boy “offering” pieces of Quraan that can be hung in cars. My friend only had a couple of Dinars to buy her coffee but decided that this 14 year old deserved his pay for the day. She “accepted” the Quraan, gave him the money then told him to do well in school. This friend also helped a frustrated elder woman picking a dress that suited her figure for her 50th Anniversary. She has also been “sponsoring” child in a poorer country by sending a monthly installment that goes towards the child’s expenses. The amount she sends every month is enough to cover the child’s living, education and other expenses but can easily spent on one dinner that lasts a couple of hours.
A friend of mine had spent a great deal of time after moving to a new job to improve the work environment. He spent time talking to his colleagues about their concerns, introduced stress relief techniques and generated lots of smiles throughout the day. He looked into the personal concerns of the workers as much as the professional concerns and finally made them feel like they are heard. He gives amounts of money to the poor on the street that makes their eyes brighten although he has no method of communication whatsoever with them.
My mother got introduced to an Iraqi painter to had to leave his country, friends and family behind after the war started to find peace and better living conditions in Bahrain. Ever since my mother met him she has been trying to help him sell his paintings by telling friends and family about him.
My father has spent the last 10 years doing more charity work than I can state. More charity work than I am allowed to state. More than I can comprehend.
My husband pointed out that he always took his clothes to a small, local laundry owned by a few people rather than the big, rich laundries that have enough business as it is, just to help them out.
On the other hand, a colleague of mine pointed out that he had turned into less of an angel after moving to the Middle East. He had noticed that although people are extremely generous with money and charity work and not as generous when it comes to smiling to the poor. He found the attitude of charity surprising and contradictory.
That made me wonder, have the extreme generosity of ancient Arabs, where people starved to serve their guests been passed on to us, but the value of a person as a human-being has not? Do we choose to be an angel in the ways we find convenient, or the ways we think are useful? Or has even charity work been affected by our traditions and pre-conceived ideas? Are we angels because we truly want to help others and believe we can make a difference or because religion, society and common beliefs?
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