The other day, I saw a video of a “Good Samaritan caught on camera helping blind Cubs fan catch a cab.” The man who captured the video is quoted as saying, “I’m like ‘oh my gosh this is really cool, I’ve never seen something like this.’” The video went viral on social media. I think it is great what the young lady did. More people need to act like this. The video bothered me for two reasons: 1) that it was something so surprising and unusual that someone felt compelled to capture it in video, and 2) that is something so rare that the video went viral.
Perhaps it is just that we are in an age where everyone feels the need to capture everything on video and share it on social media. (I really don’t get that, but….) It is, however, a condemnation upon our society. I don’t consider myself old, but I feel like an “old man” when I have thoughts of “In my day…”. It seems as though we are becoming less and less a “community”. We are increasingly becoming a society of bystanders. We stand and record violence while making no effort to step in. We protest while making no effort to step up. We complain while making no effort to suggest solutions. We blame and take no responsibility. When someone does step in or step up, it is newsworthy. Am I alone in feeling sad and dismayed?
What the woman in the video did is (extra)ordinary. She is a wonderful and caring person. She should be commended. But should what she did warrant such attention?? I would hope not. I would hope that what she did were the expected—the norm.
I know that this video does not capture an isolated incident. I know that people helping people is not as rare as it might seem. It is, however, increasingly less common. Niceness often seems feigned. People seem to feel that they should be rewarded for common courtesy. (This is not to imply that this was the desire of the woman in the video. She appears to be a genuinely caring person.) Kindness needs to be more apparent in our society.
In our pursuit of Spiritual “well-centeredness”, we must cultivate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). It is my hope that fewer and fewer people will say in response for someone’s act of kindness (especially my own) that “I’ve never seen something like this.”
Carpe momento!