Dominating the news over the past few weeks has been the devastating impact the fires around the country are having and the human trauma being brought to bear with losses of homes, possessions, livestock and livelihoods.
Surrounding it all and perhaps understated, is the response by the rest of the community, in the affected regions and across the country and even around the world, in coming to offer support to those affected. Aid agencies are overwhelmed with donations of goods and foods that they can no longer handle them and ask for cash instead, a well known entertainer has currently raised more than $20M with the help of international donations, convoys of livestock feed is pouring into the areas where the available fodder has been burnt off.
The rural fire brigades and emergency rescue services, the animal welfare and the aid agencies are all made up of people who performs acts of heroic sacrifice as volunteers, for some, they have been engaged for upwards of 100 days.
At the core of it all, is the willingness of Australians in general to roll up their sleeves and pitch in when most needed.
In times when there is no fires or floods or disaster, we can resort to becoming introspective, dwelling on the smaller day to day problems we all face, or taking a self interested political stance that denies others yet it is at times like these, people can put aside their problems and look at the plight of people far worse off than they are and react.
Mental health experts assert that taking an outside view of the plight of others, acting in a voluntary basis to address other people’s problems can have a significant effect on their own well being. They have no time to look intently at their own problems.
However, it is the Australianness of pitching in that comes to the fore in times of adversity that makes living in this country a real pleasure and all who do so are to be congratulated and thanked.
