[…] What he understood is the difference between charity and community — a difference founded in kinship, in recognizing that we all fall down, that sometimes it takes another hand to pull us up again. “All you have to do,” he once told the novelist Ann Patchett, “is give a little bit of understanding to the possibility that life might not have been fair.” ….
What Father Strobel understood is that compassion is the only thing that can save us.
— Margaret Renkl, from “Proof That One Life Can Change the World” (The New York Times · August 14, 2023)
Don’t miss rest of Margaret Renkl’s Opinion essay here.
Photo credit.
And it’s really a very easy thing to do – practice a little compassion and see what it does to your heart…❤️ (to say nothing about its impact on others)
Yes.
It was years before I could see the merits of kindness.
— Ann Patchett, Tom Lake: A Novel (Harper, August 1, 2023)
Another AP book I’ll need to read before my eyes are gone for good!
I liked it but didn’t love it. Yet I would read anything that AP would write.
I’m glad we can agree on that point. I still have ‘Those precious days’ sitting 1/3 read on my nightstand…. But SHE is precious!
compassion is everything
That it is!
There has been much talk of Fr. Strobes this passed week. He made a huge impact here in Nashville and it is being acknowledged.
Sounds like he was a great and humble man. Thanks Ray
This is great and so precious… I wished to see people like that in my country too. Thank you, Love, nia
Me too Nia. Thanks!
Love this story of a dear man many never knew about… All about extending the Love of which we are all made!
On a personal level, my hero is José Andrés…he’s now in Lahaina (of course!).
I need to look up Jose Andres! Thanks
Oh yes Val, he too is one of those incredible human beings who does something, and who is not only lamenting.
What a beautiful, touching life’s story! Of course, I never knew this kind man and also, I cannot read anything from the NYT but I read the talk with Ann Patchett (there is never anything less than delightful about this woman writer). I’m all for kindness, compassion, and generally a love for ‘thy next’, and that works a treat. It’s maybe a fact of me not being young any longer, or all the stuff that has formed me and my life – but it works really.
We are mourning presently not only a 23yr old nephew who took his life (unknowingly so) with od-ing but also a not yet 62yr old friend who was loved by literally hundreds and hundreds of kind people and died within less than 2 weeks of a cancer. I think that such extreme events also form us as human beings, such as Father Strobel was changed by the example of his shining example.
Sorry, mentor…
Oh, Kiki…My condolences to you and your extended family in the loss of your young nephew and you & your husband loss of your 62 old friend…
I lost my brother at age 56, due to an overdose – he’d been a Heroin addict since his teenage years. A difficult and hard life, for him and all of us who witness his pain. He was 9 years older than me…
I pray for you and your family in your time of loss.. In kindness, Christie
So sorry to here about your nephew Kiki. And your friend.
I have send you via email the NYT article. Worth reading. Father Strobel was an incredible human being.
“Ellis Island for urban refugees, or a Red Cross tent in a war zone, or as an oasis in an asphalt desert, or a gathering of friends.”
Thank you for sharing ❤️
My pleasure!