I have been reading a book titled “The Day The World Came To Town” by Jim Defede. It tells the stories of the people diverted to Gander Newfoundland on 9/11.
Spoiler alert – many of the stories will cause either a good belly laugh, or tears. And this is exactly as it should be, given the penchant for storytelling excellence in Newfoundland, and the beauty of its people.
At the risk of over-analyzing the events, suffice it to say that stressful times can sometimes bring out the best in people. Particularly if those people have known and lived through tough times themselves. It seems that was the experience of the travellers who were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11. The generosity, warmth and heartfelt hospitality of the Newfoundlanders shone forth to people who were experiencing a dark time in their nation, in their families, in their lives.
So too, since the beginning of measures to limit the impact of this pandemic, many of us feel we have been diverted from a planned destination and have landed in an unfamiliar place. We, like those passengers in the planes, find ourselves in a territory unknown to us; the routes to the familiar are shut down; the borders surrounding our previously-made plans are closed.
What can help us through this time is in many ways not that different than what helped those 9/11 passengers through a tough time. It is the experience of an authentic generous hospitality.
True, it will not show itself in people inviting you into their houses to shower or sip tea. Or lining the local parish centre or legion hall with cots so you will have a place to sleep.
Rather, it will show itself in a call from a friend, a video-chat from a family member, a surprise card in the mail, an email with something to make you smile, or make you feel safe, or make you inspired. The touch of a friends-hand or a shoulder to cry on may not be the way this hospitality shows right now, but it is no less authentic and is equally as generous.
And despite the sense that we are hemmed in by the situation around us, in truth our ability to be a source of authentic and generous hospitality to others is limited only by our imagination.