Because it feels so good!

I had the good fortune to be raised by parents who were always showing kindness to strangers.  My dad was always stopping the car to help a distressed traveler or to give a ride to a hitchhiker, and my mom was always bringing lonely or unfortunate strangers into our home for dinner or a place to hang out.  Over the years, our holiday gatherings grew to regularly include many of these individuals in our family celebrations.

So, what may seem odd, or maybe even dangerous, to other folks, seems rather natural to me.  Today, I was in a restaurant waiting for my take-out order when a very distressed woman appeared in the doorway.  An older gentleman sitting at the bar turned to her and asked, "what?"  In a shaky, hurried voice she babbled about needing to go home and get her insurance card.  She said she was hoping someone would help her out.  She offered $5 in gas money.  She said the cop had told her it was alright.

When she was done babbling, there was nothing but silence and the sound of a distant t.v. in the room.  After a few seconds, she turned around and walked out.

As she left the room, my carry-out arrived.  I had already paid so I was able to grab my sack and hurry out after her.  As I stepped outside, I looked down the street and saw that she was just reaching the end of the block.  I called out to her, "Ma'am!"  She turned around.  "I can take you were you need to go."

The poor thing almost collapsed with gratitude.  She hurried towards me and I led her to my car.  As we pulled out of the parking lot, she began telling me in hurried, choppy sentences, what had happened to her.

It seems she had parked her car along the curb and was opening her door to get out, when a passing vehicle rammed into her door, all but ripping it from the frame.  I had passed the accident site on my way to the restaurant and had noticed a police car and a bunch of glass in the street.  Kim (it turns out that was her name) did not have her insurance card or information with her.  She hadn't even taken her purse with her when she left the house.  The cop told her it would take him about 20 minutes to write out the accident report.  If she could produce proof of insurance before he was done, well and good.  But he also warned her about leaving the scene of an accident.

Kim looked like she'd had a rough life.  Her face had the leathery skin of a life-time smoker.  I guessed she looked older than her age, but I placed her somewhere in her 50's.  She certainly didn't look like a Kim.  More like a Betty or Franny.  She talked nervously the whole time in sentences peppered with bad grammar.  She told me that she had just been ticketed yesterday for driving without a seat belt.  She was upset about the money she had just paid to have some repairs done to the car.  Her voice was raspy with emotion and I thought she might break down and cry any minute.

We reached her house and she ran in.  Seconds later she returned with her purse and an armload of files.  I took her back to the parking lot where I had picked her up.  Before getting out of the car she reached into a pocket and pulled out a wad of paper.  Buried inside was a $5 bill which she extracted and handed to me.

"Oh, no!  That's alright.  You keep that."  I told her." 

"Really?  Are you sure?" she asked me in a trembling voice on the verge of tears.

"Yes.  And good luck.  I hope everything works out o.k. for you."

As I was driving away, I thought about the good feeling I had growing in my chest.  I thought about how interesting my day had gotten all of a sudden.  I thought about the small difference I had just played in helping someones bad day go a little bit better.  I thought about how lucky I was to have been raised by parents who so beautifully modeled Jesus' message to "love thy neighbor."  And I determined to not only help out when an occasion presents itself, but to actually seek opportunities.

My sister shared this quote by Viktor Frankl with me:

"What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment."

I think I like that!