Compassion can come in many forms as can its close friend kindness, and the solo mum who couldn't find a whare to live in after 52 interviews sparked a wave of compassion across our Tauranga Moana community, and interview number 53 will now not be needed.
A big mihi must go out to the kind and compassionate who have opened their hearts and their homes, none more so than Brian and Heika Bassett-Smith, who had more applicants for their beautiful home than Noah had for the ark. Brian and Hekia took a chance with three young professional Maori.
Sure, a few spoil it for the rest, but somewhere along the line we will eventually inherit ghettos of impoverished people - we only have to look to what is happening in America to learn we must try to apply some serious compassion and kindness now while we still have the chance. We all have the capacity to help, as the commodity of compassion and kindness costs nothing.
And it doesn't have to come from the pulpit of a church or a parcel from the local food bank.
"Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray," said a kind and compassionate man called Jesus.
It can come from a stranger over the back fence who you have never taken the time to sit down with for a coffee and korero. It could come from taking a chance with a Maori tenant for your downstairs flat that has been empty for years.
Easter for our whanau is packing 120 tamariki into buses, vans and cars and heading south to the Hui Aranga festival being held in Hastings.
But before we go, tomorrow will be the perfect platform to practise some compassion, kindness and a lot of love when we raranga te tuinga (weave together) the sister cities of San Bernardino and Tauranga Moana, to become a tertiary oasis for learning like no other in Aotearoa.
We welcome Bruce Varner, the Chancellor of the Universities of California, and his wife Nancy, who carry with them a korowai of knowledge to cover the shoulders of tomorrow's students here in the Moana of Tauranga.
It is a korowai woven together by compassion and kindness from Paul and Cheryl Adams, who have made this opportunity possible from a friendship forged over more than three decades: "Nau mai haere mai Rangatira o Amerika".
The great Sir Apirana Ngata once proclaimed, "The taiaha of knowledge is the weapon that will win Maori the battles they face in the future - as it will for all peoples on the planet".
We look forward to listening to, learning from, laughing with, and singing together with you, while in between sharing some good old fashioned Kiwi kai and korero.
And from this time together hopefully the taiaha of knowledge will yield solutions for the lost, the lonely and the families who have nowhere to live.
Have a happy and safe Easter whanau, and for those who need it most, to quote from the comeback king himself - who made this promise to the poor and the impoverished up North:
"Hang on! Help is on its way."
-broblack@xtra.co.nz
Tommy Wilson is a best selling author and local writer.
