Last week, my tire went flat. Fortunately, I had a spare attached to my car, a roommate with AAA, and no place of utmost priority to attend that night. Fast forward to this afternoon. Big O Tires is patching up my injured tire. I'm waiting for about an hour with a Dr Pepper in one hand, my cell phone exchanging texts in the other, and Fox News spewing Obama critiques and suspicions of Pakistani bombers on the television overhead. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my spare tire patched and wheeled over to where my original spare had filled the spot of my front that unfortunately drove over a sharp point rendering it flat. In no time, my tires are back in business and my car is aching to hit the not-so-open road. I go up to the register to pay my dues once the worker calls out to me that my car is ready. A few quick jokes on his part mention my having to pay a million dollars which will not be accepted in the form of bounced checks or credit cards are, by my part, obviously dismissed with my sarcastic wit. He concludes this payment with this declaration: don't worry about it, it's on me. Initially, I question this act of kindness of his part. Thoughts of three more flattened tires or half of my possessions currently living in my car gone missing immediately pop into my head. I have to ask again for the sake of my hearing, which after close proximity to high volume amps, is still quite sharp. He assures me that I don't have to pay a cent and sends me on my way. I leave with five working tires, all of my possessions still nestled comfortably in my car, and a curiosity of what prompted such an act of kindness from this gentleman coupled with an overwhelming wave of gratitude warming my heart.In an episode of The Twilight Zone, the main character narrates that, "As a race, we're unaccustomed to charity; brutality is a far more universal language to us than an expression of friendship..." Rod Serling's logic far ahead of its time seems quite realistic in regards to this. And then there's the fictitious Blanche DuBois who said, "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers." Is she a victim of wishful thinking or merely blinded by idealism? Who is more realistic, the one who expects kindness to be brought their way at every waking moment or the one who cynically questions any unselfish act when presented to them? Is it possible to live in a society where everyone can be nice to each other, or do we need to be surrounded by selfishness to further appreciate when charity shines its light on us?
If there was another person in or out of the room who had witnessed this scene between this good Samaritan in the Big O Tires company shirt and myself, I imagine they could have gone and turned such a moment into a live Liberty Mutual commercial.
