Last week I was driving on the interstate and watched as a vehicle ahead of me pulled off the road to assist a car in distress. The distressed car had a flat tire, and from the looks of the scene, they were having no luck changing it. It’s the small things like that that maintain my faith in people. And that maintenance is important because faith in people is best maintained by small daily doses rather than single giant infusions.
Driving behavior is something I watch. In Massachusetts, drivers are not exactly famous for their courtesy. But over the past couple of years I’ve seen small improvements in how many drivers are extending courtesy to each other: waving people to enter or leave traffic ahead of them; courteously stopping for pedestrians; or yielding the right of way. I’ve even noticed some smiles; a Massachusetts driver taking pleasure in helping someone? Not playing Rage King of the Road? Wonderful!
This stuff may not be the soul-lifting sort of thing that engages the attention like a miser donating a fortune, but it’s something I notice daily while driving around. It encourages me to think that the people doing it are encouraged, and encourage others, to do further deeds of kindness, like a seed being planted and growing.
So I don’t think I’m being a sloppy sentimentalist expecting huge changes. But I find hope in the multiplication of small events and things to create larger change.
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I’m with you. Acts of kindness go a long way.
I just read your post. I hope everything goes well with the house.
Thanks, Lou. Now we play the waiting game.
Me too. I live in a place where people are kind to each other, whatever weird shit they hang on their garage doors…
I am glad about that, and that’s true around here too. But I do wonder about the disconnect between how they behave and the mottos they hang around their property and on their cars.
I have no idea. It’s just weird. I can’t fix it or understand it. I just try to be a nice person and keep my head down sometimes.
Me too!