On a recent trip to visit family in upstate New York, the Sunday we had to leave (for work Monday is an implacable law), we decided to have lunch in a local park.The weather was fine and there was plenty of social distancing, given the size of the grounds.After a nice picnic and stroll, we realized it was getting late to start out in order to get home by my oddly early retiring time.We headed back to our hosts’ car only to find it wouldn’t start.They had a new battery and so we popped the hood and hoped to find something obviously wrong as we waited for the long response time for AAA in a rural area on a weekend.We were a little concerned because we still had a long drive and no real way to get back to our own car, parked at our hosts’ residence.A stranger came up and asked if we were having trouble.Listening to the symptoms he said, “Do you mind?”Putting his head under the hood, he said, “I’m a mechanic.”He had our host try again and the car started right up.He refused to take payment and wouldn’t even give his name.
Despite the fear the Republican Party tries so hard to spread, it has been my experience that good Samaritans abound.When I’ve had car trouble far from home, I’ve never waited long beside the road before a stranger has stopped and asked if they could help.Technology may make us feel more self-sufficient (we have smartphones and can call for our own help), but it doesn’t always work that way.My wife had accidentally left her phone at our hosts’ place, and I’d forgotten to charge mine so the battery was depleted.Uber would require an active, charged phone and our hosts were using theirs to communicate with AAA.If the stranger hadn’t stopped by we would’ve been stuck, likely for hours.
I oftenconsider how Calvinistic GOP thinking can be—assuming the “total depravity” of everyone and declaring that we must be kept in check by laws that maintain outdated concepts of both humanity and justice.To be sure, there are dangerous individuals out there.Would you want Trump to stop by if you were having car trouble?What selfless behavior could you expect from that quarter?Sucker!In general, however, people are good.They are motivated by what they think is right.We’re in a pandemic.The mechanic didn’t know us (we outnumbered him), he had no obligation to help.Good Samaritans exist, and they are frequently found outside the yellowed leaves of Scripture.
Balthasar van Cortbemde – The Good Samaritan, via Wikimedia Commons