What would you do?

You’re walking down the sidewalk on a very hot sunny New Jersey day. This was the only time for you to get a workout and so you went, but you can feel the sweat dripping down your face. As you walk down the path, you see a large branch blocking the way. It’s big enough that you can’t step over it but small enough that you could move it aside for future pedestrians. My question for today is, would you move it?

I encountered this situation myself a few months ago, so I know that my first instinct was to walk around it. As I approached, I started to make my way to the right, but then I realized that I could easily solve the problem for myself by walking around, or I could take a little effort and not only fix it for me but fix it for everyone that comes after me.

There are so many times we encounter situations like this one and there may be many reasons why we might choose not to help others. Every time I see trash, I want to pick it up, but if I don’t have gloves or a way to sanitize my hands, then I rightfully hesitate. Or maybe the cost to myself is greater than the few seconds lost to moving a large branch; when driving down the road, for instance, moving a large branch out of the way would require stopping, getting out of the car, and possibly endangering myself.

Helping ourselves vs helping others is not an easy and straightforward concept, but I am willing to bet there are probably lots of branches in your life that go unmoved. But if we can become the person that doesn’t' just walk around, if we can shift into a move-the-branch mentality, maybe the world will get just a little bit better. There are a lot of things in life that we cannot control but moving the branch is well within our means.

The next time you encounter a moment like that, choose the slightly harder path; choose to make life better not just for yourself, but for those who come after you.