Good Samaritan?

This morning I went for a run and had the test of whether or not I was a good samaritan. It was about 6:30 a.m. and I was headed up the hill on Fort Avenue. I was on the sidewalk and up the street in front of me I saw a man laying face up in the middle of the sidewalk. I know we live in the city and we can see all sorts of interesting sightings, but this was completely out of the ordinary. I thought, "Oh no." And then I admit, I had a fleeting thought of "I should just hop off the curb onto the street and bypass this altogether." But, that was quickly replaced with the fact that my body sped up and I couldn't wait to reach this man.

I leaned over him and asked, "Do you need help?"

He had slurry speech and what appeared to be some form of cane pinned under him. He wasn't that old, but he wasn't able to move at all. He replied, "No, my daughter is coming." I looked around and saw NO ONE. He was laying in front of houses and no doors were open and I didn't see anyone in the next few blocks.

I started thinking of the sad case in the news recently where a homeless man attacked a mugger to defend a woman that had been mugged. He was then stabbed by the mugger and left to die on the sidewalk where roughly seven people passed by without any offer of help. The story is incredibly sad and unfortunately, way too common for our "keep to ourself" society. I did start to wonder if there may be a hidden camera on me.

I said again to the man, "Do you want me to call someone?" And he again replied, "No, thanks anyway," which was probably just as well since I didn't have a phone on me!

But, again, was there a hidden camera? I started to walk away and turned back one more time to say, "Do you want me to stay with you?" I was trying to think of anything comforting I could do. Just as I asked, I heard a "I've got him!" come from a block away. His daughter was moseying up the street at an unfortunately slow pace. I waved to her and said, "OK!" and took off to finish my run.

This incident helped me realize that in me anyway, there is more good than evil. I often wonder whether man is inherently good or inherently evil. It felt good to come out on top and not hop off that curb.