I’ve been wanting to start this blog for almost a year now. I’ve felt, for a long time, that I have some really great stories and thoughts that I’d like to share with the world. So I’ve been writing journal entries and stories, but not posting them because I wanted my first blog entry to be something really profound or witty, or both. But then today, I got a flat tire and as cars were zooming past me I thought this is the kind of stuff I want my blog to be about. So here goes nothin’…
The concept here is pretty simple: I believe that if you are a nice person and you act the way a nice normal human being is supposed to act then you will contribute to society and people will treat you nice in return. Seems easy enough, right? I consider myself a nice person. I’m friendly, outgoing and generally positive. This evening I was standing along the road with my co-worker trying to figure out how to change a flat tire, something neither she nor I had ever done before. We were both wearing nursing scrubs, it was getting dark and starting to snow and we could not get those dang lug nuts off. For some reason we were both really surprised that no one stopped to ask if we needed help but then I got to thinking “Would I stop to help if I was driving by?”. I’d like to think so but I’m not really sure. What I can say for sure though, is that after having this experience, I definitely will do so in the future.
I had a very similar experience Grazona, but from the other side. I was in a parking lot when I saw a lady who had a dead battery. I walked over, & she was quite nervous when I approached, because obviously I was a terrorist, or a rapist, or whatever. Once we got it figured out that I wasn't going to kill her, another car pulled into the spot in between making it so I could no longer pull my truck in to get the vehicles close. I asked the woman in that car, who was with her daughter, if she could pop her hood & I'd just use my cables & her battery? That way no one would have to move. Her quote was "my husband would probably kill me if I did anything like that". I asked her if in all seriousness she thought her husband would be pissed because she helped another woman with a dead battery? She didn't know what to say, but she knew she wasn't interested in being involved. . . So finally I convinced her to at least back out, so I could pull my truck over, then she could have my old spot. She reluctantly agreed. So after 5 minutes of convincing multiple people I was only trying to help, we got the battery jumped in about 20 seconds & finally we all went our separate ways. I got to wondering exactly the question you're asking. When did we all become strangers? Even in a small town? I could only come up with one answer. . . television. Our neighbors are now kidnappers, & thieves, & extremely dangerous. All heavily promoted in the media. For decades it was sort of a punchline, but now it appears everyone's pretty well buying in. People will post their most intimate thoughts on facebook, but not say hello to a passer by. It's time for a change.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing your story! I agree with you about television but I think it's media in general. All the horrible stories are the top headlines. Very rarely do you hear a news story about a random act of kindness or someone helping a stranded motorist. I'm not sure what that is...I guess it's up to people like you & me to change the world!
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