The Kindness of Strangers...

I've been meaning to write about this for a month now...

At the end of February, I was driving home from Chapel Hill to Durham when the 4Runner decided to call it quits in a permanent, never to be started again, kind of way. I was on 15/501 just before the Hwy 40 entrance which is about 20 miles from home and 6 miles back to Chapel Hill. No phone. 22 degrees. 10:15 at night on a Sunday. Suck!

So, I put my thumb out in the direction of Chapel Hill with thoughts of making it back to the only all night gas station and calling AAA from there. Twenty minutes later, having been passed by approximately 200 cars, I'm freezing, pissed and ready to walk. I mean, come on people, I'm standing by a car in a ditch with it's hazards on. Obviously I'm legit. But, alas, the milk of human kindness does not flow in Chapel Hill at ten o'clock on Sundays. Or so I thought. Just as I start walking, a minivan pulls to the side of the road and the passenger door opens. It's a couple with their toddler asleep in the back seat and they offer to give me a ride to Chapel Hill, so I climb in next to the sleeping child and we're off. Two hours and a $24 towing bill later, I get home. Thank you kind family.

But here's the thing that blew me away. The family was African American. I had been passed by two hundred white people who chose to look the other way and then I was rescued by a family who had the least reason to trust me out of any of them. In fact, I am humbled by their trust and generosity. There are a lot of horror stories, fear, litigation and racism that stacks the deck against us helping a fellow human being these days and it takes guts to ignore all that and just do the right thing. So, kind family, I just wanted you to know that, in picking me up, you not only saved me a long chilly walk, but also restored a small bit of my faith in humanity. Thanks again. I'll try to pay it forward.