The road is long, with many a winding turn

I do not know Brandy Maltas (Kalli Birman in Second Life®). However, I know a few things about her. Most urgently, I know she has cancer, a second recurrence of metastatic uterine cancer that has spread to her liver. Secondly, I know she must be a kind person because people care about her and are trying to help her. From the event information, I know she is a single mother of three who is trying to do her best to survive and make it through this battle so she can see her children grown. Lastly, I know that I hope people will support The Road Ahead, an event to support her struggle, before it closes on January 1st.

As an exclusive for the event, Mami Jewell has released a special amethyst color of her Electra dress. As you can see the dress can be worn different ways, all amethyst or black and amethyst, with all the billowing attachments or without them, with sleeves or without. Azul’s clothing is always versatile.

Some might ask why care when Brandy is someone I don’t know and may never know. My answer is that we are all part of humanity and what touches one affects us all. John Donne said it best in a eulogy he gave, “No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed out to sea, Europe is the less.” More recently, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

It is hard to see, sometimes, but yes, the fate of one woman living somewhere else whom I will never meet does affect me. Her fate reflects the quality of community and shared compassion that forms our society. If we are indifferent to people we do not know, well, indifference breeds indifference. Compassion breeds compassion. What society would you prefer?

I am glad we live in a world where people are moved by the troubles of strangers to want to help them and lighten their load when the road is hard.

I am glad we live in a world where people from around the world come together to offer their gifts to make a difference in the lives of four strangers.

I am glad we live in a world where people do not turn away with indifference, but instead ask how they can help.