The Ride...

At last, perhaps another story of hope, in this ever growing cynical world of ours. For years I have watched society turn against itself to where even the thought of giving a stranger a ride on a dark cold night frightens us. All the horrible things can happen because society, as a whole, has turned into a world of racial hatred, cultural ignorance, and instilled fear. When once our generation had been raised to understand the ignorance and cruelty of hating we now watch as our children judge one another even for something as trivial as what clothing they wear in school. It's become almost common. But, in some small way and every now and then, certain people shine through and prove that to be "common" and to conform to what society has deemed "a way of life" does not have to be.

A friend of mine, while driving home one evening, came across a woman obviously in need of assistance. As I am sure some resolute of caution surged through his veins he still put aside all that "could" go wrong and opted for what he felt was "right". He stopped and offered her a ride. Thankful for the lift the journey went without negative incident.  They spoke briefly along the way, arrive at her destination, they exchanged pleasantries of "thank yous" and "your welcomes", and he went about his venture home. 

Sadly, as heartfelt as this gesture already is, it hurts me to say that I need to remark about the truer reason this story has meaning. Each time I've told it to someone I know they were pleasantly pleased with the thought of this gesture, until I mention that the man was Caucasian and the woman was African American and that he was not on, what has been deemed "his side of the tracks", but rather on "her side of town". I watch as a pleasant smile, upon the faces of those I've told, turn to shock and then surprise at this notion. It hardens my heart to see how much more meaning it appears to generate simply by adding the description of the differences between them. What difference should it make? What deeper meaning should it have simply because they were of different color or gender or from opposite sides of town?  

The meaning behind this gesture to me is simple. He put aside whatever fears society has put into his head about the neighborhood and ethnicity to which she was born and she put aside the fears that have been instilled in her about this man being not of her color or walk of life. They saw through the "common" way of thinking and traveled back in time to the "right" way of thinking. They were not people with tense emotions about what they've been taught about each other, they were a man and a woman sharing a few moments in time being human beings.