{"id":1150,"date":"2013-07-10T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T23:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2013-06-25T18:16:13","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T23:16:13","slug":"nobody-has-a-can-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2013\/07\/nobody-has-a-can-opener.html","title":{"rendered":"Nobody has a Can Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"oklahoma-tornado\"<\/a>I was happy to become one of the first responders to the disaster in Oklahoma City. I was one of the late responders to Katrina, unable to find time to get down there until years after the event, and I\u2019ve often lamented the opportunity missed. When the tornados hit Moore though, it was much closer to me, and I had no trouble taking a week off and heading down within a couple of days. <\/p>\n

I had a friend who arrived even before I did, and I gave him a call to ask what was needed, \u201cWhat can I bring? Should I bring my own tools? Do you need water?\u201d and what he said surprised me:<\/p>\n

Whatever you do, don\u2019t bring water, don\u2019t bring clothes, we stopped accepting clothes at all earlier this morning. Food is helpful, if it\u2019s non perishable, but people bring canned food, nobody has a can opener.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That really hit me — the disconnect of it all. We so lack the capacity to understand what it is like to have your house demolished in the blink of an eye that we do things (and by we I mean me) that make no sense!
We run around collecting water bottles, and we fail to realize that this isn\u2019t a hurricane, the plumbing still works. When I went down to Moore, every street corner was equipped with a mountain of donated bottled water from Dasani or Aquafina. <\/p>\n

We donate clothes and we fail to realize that it takes a person a long time before they die of a lack of old second hand clothes. If you don\u2019t want them, the chances are good that they don\u2019t either. <\/p>\n

And I really think that the workers down there appreciate the thought. They appreciate that we\u2019re trying, but often we as donors and servants feel entitled and say, \u201cLook I brought you this clothing aren\u2019t you happy?\u201d and the victims will say, \u201cThank you,\u201d but they want to say, \u201cLook, I actually didn\u2019t lose many of my clothes. They fell off the rack in a pile of rubble; they need to be washed, but I still have them; I need a tarp; I need something to make sure that everything doesn\u2019t get soaked when it rains tonight and\u2026 that\u2019s probably what I\u2019m going to use these old jackets for.\u201d
\u2026
It\u2019s not just disasters either. Our treatment of homeless people, mourning people, the handicapped, and every kind of minority so often fails so completely to understand their situation that our help borders on hurt. But that doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn’t try: <\/p>\n

I brought some tarps to OKC. I brought a bunch of church key can openers, as many as I could. By now the situation has changed, different things are needed, and I\u2019m bringing a team of teenagers down this week to help clean up. <\/p>\n

Pray for my humility in service. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was happy to become one of the first responders to the disaster in Oklahoma City. I was one of the late responders to Katrina, unable to find time to get down there until years after the event, and I\u2019ve often lamented the opportunity missed. When the tornados hit Moore though, it was much closer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNobody has a Can Opener - A Fear of Whales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2013\/07\/nobody-has-a-can-opener.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nobody has a Can Opener - A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was happy to become one of the first responders to the disaster in Oklahoma City. 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