My Misanthropic Tendency Wanes, Albeit Slightly

[bradm]

My sometimes beaten-down feelings that humanity may actually be worth saving and preserving were buoyed somewhat this morning. Here in Ottawa (and elsewhere), we've had freezing rain for the last few hours (and a few hours to come), and so it's slippery out there. On my way to the bus stop this morning, I was fine getting out of my driveway and across the 4-lane road, but as soon as I got to the sidewalk on the other side, I slipped and fell.

It wasn't a big deal, it was just that my left side lost grip, and I went down, landing on my left hip. I wasn't hurt, and, since there wasn't any standing water around, I wasn't even wet. I got back up, checked myself out, found nothing wrong, and started (slowly, carefully) back on my way.

About one step into getting back on my way, I heard a voice off to my right. A woman in a car had pulled up to the stoplight, seen me fall, and had rolled her window down: "Are you OK?" she yelled, loudly enough to be heard, but not frantically enough to indicate panic.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I replied, waving at her. She rolled up her window and drove off through the just-changed-to-green light. In total, our interaction (even including my fall) took maybe several seconds.

I can't recall the last time a complete stranger did something like that (that nice) for me, but to know that there are still people out there who are willing to do things like that fills my heart with gladness. While I sometimes feel society (humanity) is on a slippery slope (pun intended) towards boorishness, rudeness, and (possibly worst of all) indifference, it's nice to be wrong on occasion.

Aloha,

Brad

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

. I love being pleasantly suprised like that (one of the upshots of being an intractable pessimist, I guess). The big power blackout gave lots of such pleasant surprises (though I'd hate to think of where that would have gone had it lasted, say, a couple of weeks). I think of the line from that Stephen Fearing song, Blind Indifference - "Human beings were never born to be so mean...."

That said, I hope everyone is being careful with that slippery slope out there. I could have skated to school with my daughter this morning (I'm not kidding).

[Birdy]

a nice story brad.

aside from DEM, it would serve as a reaffirmation for me.

[Deeps]

Nice stories guys...thanks for sharing.

[Lazlo]

What a sad, sad world we live in when it's no longer funny when somebody slips on the ice.

For shame world, for shame.