COVID-19 has changed the way we’ve been meeting and posting to our website. The most tragic thing for us this past year though, was one of our local Las Vegas chapters getting flooded. However, I personally learned something very valuable from this incident. I thought it would be a great reason to post here again for you all to read and learn from with me.
Our Flooded Building & The Hectic Phone Call
I was leaving the local temple when I received a phone call from a brother in distress. He was panicking, and as I got him to relax and take some deep breaths he began telling me what happened. Someone had left the water running in the bathroom where we have our chapter meetings. The drain was clogged and so the water flooded out of the sink and onto the floor. Pretty soon the entire building was flooded, this is what caused him to panic. Chairs and cloths were ruined, among many other items, and he was so sorry to tell me this.
I told him there was no need to be sorry, as he did not purposely flood the building. There was still some back and forth between us until he started to become calm. This brings up my point and question:
Why are some people constantly taking responsibility for unfortunate things that happen naturally?
We are not in control of everything, and yet there will always be someone that feels as if they could’ve done something about it. More destructively, they truly feel that if they had been there, the unfortunate event wouldn’t have happened and therefore they’re the reason it happened. This is nonsense.
As I explained very carefully to my brother there many disasters that happen in this world that are nobody’s fault. Ahura Mazda would not want for anyone to take blame for things they did not deliberately do themselves as wrongdoings.
All men and women are here serving their purpose, this purpose is to be good and honest, and to show this in the work we do. This is partially why I write these posts for you, because I want to contribute the most I can for our higher learning. If I learn something from my experience that I can tie into the understanding of Zoroastrianism, I will always go out of my way to share it.
The Restoration Team
Together, as he was now calm and collective, we solved the problem (the flood). We called the insurance company that has our policy for liability on the building. The agent that helped us was very kind and was sorry for our loss and damages. This was reassuring as there wasn’t a reason for him to be nice to us.
The point was that he was nice out of his own valor, he was very sincere and made us feel even better that we were fixing the problem with him. My brother was feeling much better because of this act. The power behind kindness is often misunderstood; and when we act out it’s only a sign that we’re too far away from our understanding of this.
We eventually talked to a Las Vegas water damage restoration company that was also another great help to our problem. Not only because they can physically cleanup the flood, and not even because they were able to restore all the damages. It was because of their kindness and willingness to help us over the phone. The first call with them was excellent, the same way it went with our insurance company.
When they came to the flood (it was a local Servpro), they were there within 25 minutes and got right to work. This is the honest work I mentioned above that we all should strive to achieve. They brought in a big water extraction machine and sucked out the water from the floors and carpets. It was a lot of water to remove. Then they started removing the carpets that needed to be replaced; as they were doing this, they were radioing their team to bring the exact replacement carpet immediately to have on hand for when it was dry. The laid down big green fans to dry the water from the floors, probably about 10 fans.
Here’s a video our Servpro flood restoration team sent me from their youtube of them using the water extractor machine if you’d like to see how it works:
The thoroughness in how they think and how they work together efficiently is the same way we all need to be. Very thorough with each other, and with full purpose in everything we do. Especially in our work, family and relationships.
Thank you for reading.