Hey, Bones! When are you going to make the anime for My Hero Academia: Vigilantes? Seriously, it’s engaging, often because it shows us what our favorite MHA peeps were doing a decade or two earlier (I’m estimating; could be off).
For example, today we get to see a young(er) Eraserhead and his apparent aversion to cats. (I take personal offense at this, btw.) Young(er) Midnight calls him up and tries to talk him into becoming a teacher. E. is like, “Ha! That’ll never happen. I hate school.”
Then Young(er) E. does a memory-flashback thing and we see him even earlier–as a student! He sees a kitten in the rain and feels sorry for it. He weighs adopting it, but doesn’t feel he can commit to caring for it. Instead he leaves it his umbrella. (How sweet! All is forgiven.)
Aizawa is a soaking mess when he enters class. Suddenly a classmate comes in through the window, also soaking. His name is Shirakumo, and he’s got–Eraserhead’s umbrella!
And the cat.
It’s a lighthearted moment, but it also begs the question:
What do you do when you see a need and don’t feel capable of resolving it? Are you justified in passing by? In doing some small kindness that might mitigate the need even if it doesn’t fix it? Do you step out on faith that things will somehow work out if you extend your means beyond your perceived limits?
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a classic story attributed to Jesus: A man is robbed and left for dead. Two men see him and pass by without helping. The third man to pass, though, takes him to the nearest doctor and rents out a room at a nearby inn, paying all of the victim’s bills. That’s great and all, if you have those kinds of financial resources. But what if you don’t?
Vinland Saga‘s latest episode serves as a counterpoint to the parable. A kind Englishwoman finds Thorfinn injured from an arrow. She takes him home, bandages him, feeds him, and even covers for him when the cops come by hot on his trail. In return, Thorfinn summons the Vikings who burn the place to the ground and slaughter the villagers. The woman loses everything, and there’s even the implication that her daughter (who warned against helping Thorfinn) will be captured and raped.
The cost of charity was too high.
What do you do when you see a need?
That was one heckuva counterpoint! Of course, your question has no single answer (for me, anyway). For example, I’ll stop and help someone with a flat if I’m alone, but usually not if my family is with me (unless the driver is elderly or pregnant)–I just can’t justify risking their safety.
Yeah, that’s similar to how I think of things. I don’t have a simple or definite answer myself, hence the question! 😸
I will really go out of my way for an animal. Not quite so much so for a human being. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that someone I helped out once, ended up robbing my home and causing me considerable trouble. Which leads to the second reason – when all that happened I was young, single, and making piles of cash. Now I’m older, full time caretaker of my disabled husband, and on a rather restricted income that barely covers our own needs. I don’t have the money to do much for someone else. I absolutely will not take someone into my home because of the danger to my husband’s health and well being. Even emotional support is a bit limited because there are a lot of days I’m doing good to be there for myself, and hubby. Still, I will do what I can if I feel it’s actually helpful. Because I also learned along the way that sometimes what the Samaritan thinks is “help” actually is “enabling” or even harmful or annoying to the person being helped because it is not what is actually needed in the situation. Which is something I learned when people tried to “help” us (generally unsolicited help) and caused more problems. Which brings up an important thing when helping people – make sure they want your help, need your help, and you are giving the help that they actually need – not necessarily what you might think they need. Because we’re all different. So – I ask if help is needed or wanted, I offer to do what I am able to do, often only advise on where to go for real help or what the “victim” can do for themselves. It’s kind of a sad thing, or at least it makes me sad, to not be able to do more but the reality is that you really can only do so much for someone else if they won’t take responsibility for themselves. Egad, this turned into a lecture. 😛 Sorry.
We need more lectures like this, sempai. 🙂 Sounds like you’ve taken some of life’s classes that I’m currently trying to pass! I agree with everything you’ve said here. Thank you!
The first step to learning is realizing there is much you do not know. I hope by passing on what I have learned, maybe I can save someone else some of the more painful lessons!