On Feb 23, 2022, Erin Kastner, Geospatial Information Manager from Energy & Water Services, Facilities, shared her experience and thoughts on lifting one another up as part of the VPFO’s annual Pink Shirt Day event. The following is a transcript of her speech:
I was just walking my dog in the greenway near my home in Surrey, just one of those BC hydro right of way with tall grasses and blackberry bushes taking over. And I came upon a woman who had set up a makeshift tent maybe 10 feet off the path in between patches of blackberry bushes.
I stopped and asked her if she was ok. She said yes but she had missed the bus yesterday, to the white rock shelter she likes to go to. She had lost everything in her storage container on Sumas Prairie last November, but she said God would provide.
I warned her the weather was turning and she should try to get there today. And she thanked me. She said, “you don’t know how, just asking someone if they’re okay, could change their life”. And I wanted to cry.
Not just because this young, kind woman got left behind so badly but also because I couldn’t believe my simply asking “are you ok” could make such a difference. And I wondered why can’t we raise everyone up to at least a level of proper shelter?
How DO we lift each other up? We — you and I — are not going to solve homelessness. But I started to think about what little things can I do?
We start by changing the conversation. In this case, for me, it was starting a conversation with a stranger. But here at work, we are not strangers.
We have a choice we can make to change how we think and talk about and to each other. All our little comments in our heads and to each other can literally change lives.
It’s like I told my kids: we are mirrors. What we put out there is what gets reflected back. So if we have a habit of blaming, or shaming, or just talking smack about someone, it reflects back on us.
You may have heard of UBUNTU. I believe more than one south African culture uses this phrase or something like it; it means “I am because you are”. There is an awareness in those cultures that helping others does nothing but help you.
Maybe you’ve heard the story of the kids being told they can race each other to a big bowl of fruit and whoever gets there first gets the fruit. But they choose to hold hands and go together to the bowl, and share the fruit.
Does this sound strange? Is this principle, this way of being an anomaly?
I don’t think so. There are many societies with a similar word or phrase as Ubuntu: In Kenya – Harambee – all pull together. India – Namaste – I honour the place in you that is the same as it is in me. China – Ren – how two people should treat each other.
Indigenous languages refer to this interconnectedness, oneness and harmony with all of earth: people, animals, forests, rivers. You may have heard it in English as “all my relations” or in Lakota – mitakuye oyasin.
I feel that it’s important that we all remember that we are not alone. We are all here together. Desmond Tutu explained it as, to paraphrase, you can’t human without other humans.
In our work culture, I think we might define it as collectivism. Something to think about.
So the next time we’re at work and we feel a negative thought or comment coming on, just remember we are all here together. We can all make a choice to lift each other up.
We all have beautiful gifts and when we are open to giving and receiving what we each have to offer – amazing things can happen. I would like to thank you for your time and attention and share with you this video.
[Proceeds to play video: The Power of Diversity]