An interview excerpt with Trevor Noah emphasizing the moral and practical value of 'consideration'—helping neighbors and acting for the community’s benefit. Noah recounts a childhood story about his mother cutting an elderly neighbor’s grass to prevent rats from spreading, using it to illustrate how helping others also protects oneself. The piece centers on community-minded action as a guiding life lesson.
Chapters
What are some of the lessons that you've learned that have helped you navigate the world? I think the biggest thing I've learned that has given me.
The most reward has been consideration. I don't always make the best decisions. I don't always make the right decisions. But I do know I always work from the place of consideration. Give an example. When I was growing up, my mom drilled into me through her actions as well, not just through her words, that we were always to consider others. And I remember this one really sticks with me prominently because she said to me, there's an old man who's our neighbor. His grass. His grass is getting too long. We must. We must go help him cut the grass. And I was like, this lady is insane. We're gonna cut somebody else's grass? Is he paying us? No, he's not paying us. We're just doing this. He didn't even ask us, by the way. He didn't even seem to appreciate that we were going to do it, by the way. And she said, she said. She said, by considering others, you are also able to consider yourself. And she said, if this man doesn't cut his grass, you know what's going to happen? There's going to be rats in his yard. And she said, and you know where the rats go? They're going to come to our house as well. And so she said, I'm cutting his grass for him, but I'm also cutting his grass for us. And so we can live in a world where we say we don't cut grass for other people, or we can live in a world where we say, if I'm able to, I'll cut their grass so that I also don't experience the rats. This is a theme that comes up almost every time you and I talk, which is community.
