Let's Be Human

One morning, in the middle of the winter, a blind girl on campus stumbled into a snowdrift. She stood in the center of the pile, about three feet deep in the snow and tapped her ‘seeing stick’ in a circle around her, trying to find something that would tell her which way to go.

A lot of students saw her. Some of them stared at her for awhile as they walked past. Eventually, one person stopped and asked the girl, “Can I help you?” Admittedly, calling attention to someone’s disability or implying that they need help could be pretty touchy. Maybe that’s why no one else asked.

But the girl said, “Actually, that would be great.”

And the other person who stopped gave her instructions on which way to head in order to get back on the sidewalk. With some help, the girl figured it out and thanked the person, and they both went their separate ways.

-

Months later, all the snow was melting and it finally began to feel like spring. An old man walking down the street took off his hat and gloves in the warm weather, and after struggling to arrange them in his arms, accidentally dropped them on the ground. In bending down to retrieve them, his sunglasses fell off and bounced a few feet away. The man slowly started to crawl towards his hat, and the other people walking noticed his strange behavior and moved away. He shuffled forward, on his hands and knees, until he reached his hat and picked it up off the sidewalk. Then he moved in the direction of his first glove, as a dozen or so people with averted eyes passed by, quickly. Just as he was about to reach for the glove, one of the people walking stepped towards him holding the second glove and his sunglasses. The person who stopped offered the man the two items, and he took them with shaking hands, as he sat down on the pavement. The person extended a hand and asked him if he needed help getting up, and the man (who, from up close, appeared to be homeless and probably not ‘all there’) nodded and grasped on. Pulling him up however, proved harder than the person had expected, and she nearly toppled over herself trying to lift a full grown person while wearing high heels.

Only when the person looked as if she might fall too, did the waiter standing nearby (who had watched the entire event, from when the man dropped his things) offer to help. Even then, he grabbed on to the person helping and steadied her, rather than offering the man a second hand.

The man made it to his feet. The girl who stopped to help was only a couple of minutes late to her date. She did not wash her hands before dinner.