No, no, not that white Charger. I am talking about the white horse the hero rides when off to save the damsel in distress. You remember the fairy tale.
I
don't often get the opportunity to be the person riding in to save the day, but last week, I got the chance to do it twice. I want to tell you about one of those. For all of my adult life, and most of the years I was learning to drive, one thing I was told again and again was not to pick up hitchhikers. It was an unsafe decision. So, I've stopped to give someone a ride twice, one of them last week.
I'd been in the Twin Cities and was heading back mid-morning on Wednesday. The temperature was four degrees there, and the wind was blowing. As I drove, I saw a car on the side of the road with its flashers blinking. No one was in the car and there were no other cars around it. Someone was having a bad day. About a quarter of a mile down the road, two people, wrapped in blankets were walking along the side of the interstate. Interestingly, all the training and all the words from the past were nowhere to
be heard. I pulled over as quickly as I could, rolled down the windows on the passenger side of the truck and waited for the two to catch up to me.
Now comes the interesting part. Two young women approached my truck as though it was the “portal to hell.” Obviously, they'd received the same training and conversation about taking a ride from a stranger. Now, looking back on it, the whole thing was hilarious. I had already made the leap to this being okay, but they just weren't sure getting in a truck with a stranger was the safe, smart thing to do. So, I
decided to break the ice. I told them I would be happy to take them the couple of miles to the truck stop to where they would be warm and safe. I also looked at them, smiled, and told them I was safe, adding there were two of them and only one of me.
Somewhere in the middle of the short conversation, I won them over. One of them jumped in the front seat and the other in the back. We started moving
and I recognized how cold they already were. One could barely speak through shivering teeth. I asked about their situation and they had literally run out of gas about two miles sooner than needed. They'd already talked to
family who lived about thirty minutes south and who
were headed toward them to help. In less than five minutes, I had them snug in a warm truck stop, waiting for
family to come and bail them out.
As I drove away, I
found myself smiling and thinking, as my sister would have said when we were younger, “all at the same once.” The reason for the smile was obvious. I helped someone
who was in a jam. The thinking takes a little more to get processed. I
found myself taking a look at all the things we take for granted. The things we have learned, either intentionally, or unintentionally over a lifetime. One of mine was to never pick up hitchhikers. I could argue I didn't break that rule as these girls weren't hitchhiking, but
were in trouble. But the other thing is that nobody else stopped to help them. Many of us have the same rule set. But, for the three of us involved in the five minutes where I gave them a ride, we will probably think differently about similar situations
in the future. Heck, at the
end of it, I don't even know their names. They were just people who needed help.
So, in this time of holiday cheer, thinking of friends and family, it again points out to me the need to think about ways we can help each other. This can be those we know intimately, or those barely known to us. I know for me this
year, I am thinking more about how I can help others than I typically do, and it will
be interesting to see where this leads.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Jim
