Yesterday afternoon my husband told me he had just heard that a commercial airplane made an emergency landing on the Hudson River having minutes before taken off from LaGuardia. I said, "Don't tell me anymore!" I am a white knuckle airplane passenger at best and with a trip planned for San Diego in April what I really wanted to do was stick my fingers in my ears and sing, "la, la, la, la, la," while my ex-pilot husband told me what I thought would be the gory details. As the story unfolded, I couldn't wait to turn on the evening news and tune in again this morning. I haven't been able to think about this event without tears in my eyes.
I was struck by the extraordinary skill and calmness of the crew and the amazing way the passengers handled the crisis. Even more remarkable were the first responders. Some were people trained for just such an event, but others were the crew of The Circle Line, my favorite ferry when I was a kid.
Yes, I'm a New Yorker. I grew up on the Hudson River north of Manhattan and though I moved to the country many years ago, I still have a majority of my relatives living in "The City".
I have been reflecting for the last 24 hours on how extraordinary New Yorkers are. I cried as I listened to eye witnesses, who were initially horror struck, flashing back to 9/11, and then experienced relief and joy that every single person on that aircraft was rescued.
I thought back to some of my experiences in the city since 9/11, little miracles, small, random acts of kindness that could go unnoticed were it not for the humility of the people involved.
Several years ago, I had a small experience that created a huge shift in my awareness of the scope of humility. I dropped my 80 year old father, teenaged son and husband off in front of my sister's building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, while I drove around the block to park at her garage where she had made a reservation for our car for the weekend. The east/west streets are one way in the neighborhood. I pulled into the narrow entrance of the garage only to find that I was totally blocked. I had a garbage truck right behind me with cars behind it, and a car needed to be driven OUT of the parking garage before I could pull IN! I started to sweat and felt panicy, at a loss for what to do, as the other driver and garage attendants shook their heads at my stupidity. Suddenly I caught sight of a man directing traffic. He walked up the street and got the cars to back up one by one so the garbage truck could pull back and I could back up to let the car out. I opened my window to thank the man and he was gone. Completely vanished.
When I arrived at my sister's apartment and relayed the story and how astonished and grateful I felt, she looked at me right in the eyes and said, "Cate, that's how New Yorkers are, they just do what needs to be done and get on with it."
Listening to a first responder being praised this morning, a young man who was still stunned by yesterday's events, caused me to remember my little parking adventure. The first responder was humble. He would accept no praise for his acts of rescue, he simply remarked that this was what he's trained to do but hoped he would never need to use his training.
It is as though every one involved was on auto pilot, the kind of auto pilot we should all be on all the time. There was no question of helping, it was just done. One foot in front of the other. Done.
I wondered if it is unique to New Yorkers. Since 9/11. The courage. The humility. I still wonder.
Yet I know that we are all that. Each of us has the little hero and the big hero within us. We are all capable of random acts of kindness and large acts of heroism.
I am glad that if this accident had to happen, that The City, the Hudson River, got it. Lots of places can use a miracle, many people deserve a miracle. We all could use a little miracle in our lives. No better place to start.
How can you create a little miracle in your world? We have enough disasters and clearly need many more miracles. What would it take for you to step in to your hero self?
Mahatma Gandhi said: We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
President Elect Barack Obama said: We are the ones we have been waiting for.
What ARE we waiting for? Where will your random acts of kindness be today? And tomorrow?
Time to let your inner hero out.
Be the change.
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