Threading a needle
by Bob on December 4, 2007
I found myself in a very curious situation. My jacket had just ripped and I was far away from home, in downtown Boston at the offices of an organisation.
I needed to fix it and sew it up because it was very cold outside and I didn't have another jacket with me.
So I was able to get a needle and thread from someone in the office.
But I couldn't thread the needle. It was an unusual needle with a very tiny hole. I kept trying, but didn't succeed.
Finally I asked several people to help. No one could get the thread through the needle. One person with excellent eyesight came to help, and it was even difficult for him to do, but he finally succeeded. I was able then to sew my jacket up, hoping that the thread would not come out of the needle's eye.
It made me realise yet again that we need other people and we are blessed to have other people around us who will help.
Realising, of course, that in our modern seemingly self-centered world, that there is a lower probability of people being around at all in a room since everyone is engaged in solo activities, on the internet, or playing a video game, or watching TV or listening to music alone with headphones.
But human compassion prevails ultimately. Someone does finally realise that it could be them in the predicament we are in, so they help us, all based on the Golden Rule, or "ethic of reciprocity" in almost all religions and modes of spirituality, and in most cultures around the world.
Frequently in my life, strangers have come up to me looking for advice or even less profoundly, asking for directions to a destination. Maybe sometimes I don't even know the answer and immediately I have a choice: I can say simply "I don't know" and leave it at that, and leave them in a jam, or I can choose to help out even if I have to learn something new to help.
It is written in many wise books and religious and spiritual revelations that two are better than one. For, as one holy book states, if one falls and cannot pick oneself up, who will then help us up ? We need another person.
Many times, despite our isolation, two pairs of eyes are better than one.
That was certainly true with threading a needle. Especially since the eye of a needle is not very forgiving at all.