True story. Driving home from Marion two weeks ago, my mind was filled with despair about people.
Social media has become a cesspool, everyone is at each other’s throats for the slightest utterance, each new news story becomes more entrenched in polarized conflict than the next.
I was literally boiling in rage at the state of humanity when a deer jumped in the road and I swerved slightly and completely lost control of my van.
I skidded toward the steep embankment on the right, slammed my breaks and jerked the wheel to the left, which prevented certain serious harm, but propelled my squealing vehicle across the road and into the muddy embankment.
As I stepped from my vehicle, happy to be uninjured in any way, people suddenly appeared.
A woman from a nearby house had heard the crash, as had another gentleman from another house. They wanted to know if I was ok, not casually, but with intent.
The woman stood with me for 10 minutes, just kindly checking in and expressing her joy that I was unharmed. The gentleman brought out cones and made jokes and put me at ease.
They both had stopped everything they were doing to focus on one purpose: that this unknown human who had randomly and violently crashed into their aural space was ok, cared for, and moving along safely.
Based on their outfits and other telling regalia, one of them was a Biden Democrat, the other was a Trump Republican.
But none of that mattered to them or to me. All that mattered was my safety and well being, our shared humanity.
I remain thoroughly moved by their deep, immediate, and unconditional love for a complete stranger who literally meant nothing to them in any material, political, or self-serving manner.
Love in the truest sense of the word.
We’re encouraged to forget our own decency these days and often dead set on demonizing others.
But the evidence of that day will remain with me forever. It reminded me that poignant, un-coerced, and genuine humanity lives in all of us, every human being.
And it convinced me to try harder to cultivate that attitude in myself and everyone I encounter. I hope it can inspire the same in you.
(Kent “Kip” Curtis is an associate professor at The Ohio State University-Mansfield. He originally posted this on social media and gave Source Media permission to reprint it here.)
