Zen prison ministry experience pros and cons?

Small plane just crashed in your neighborhood. you take a fire extinguisher and blankets to the scene, then stand back and silently gather with others on the scene when you realize there is nothing you can do to . in this situation, gathering quietly with others out of reverence and respect is an example of coping.

Nita is the office manager at a service station. two applicants, max and tim, arrive to interview for the open mechanic's position. max's clothes are dirty, his hair is unwashed, and he doesn't make eye contact when he gives nita his name. tim dresses in clean jeans and a nice shirt, is shaved, and shakes nita's hand when he introduces himself. after the interview, keith the head mechanic, asks nita what she thought. both men have the skill set needed for the position. nita recommends tim. she is responding to her perception of

“dear sir: it is with great reluctance, i trouble you on a subject, which does not fall within your province; but it is a subject that occasions me more distress, than i have felt, since the commencement of the war; and which loudly demands the most zealous exertions of every person of weight and authority, who is interested in the success of our affairs. i mean the present dreadful situation of the army for want of provisions, and the miserable prospects before us, with respect to futurity. it is more alarming than you will probably conceive, for, to form a just idea, it were necessary to be on the spot. for some days past, there has been little less, than a famine in camp. a part of the army has been a week, without any kind of flesh, and the rest for three or four days. naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere this excited by their sufferings, to a general mutiny or dispersion. strong symptoms, however, discontent have appeared in particular instances; and nothing but the most acitive efforts every where can long avert so shocking a catastrophe.” what’s the central idea?