A friend of mine was headed home from work the other day and saw a young man walking by the road. He stopped and asked the guy if he needed a ride. “Oh, man, I’d appreciate that,” was the reply. Tall and lanky, hands hard and jeans dirty, his eyes and face held the look of someone who had worked a long day and wouldn’t make it the rest of the way without a little help.

“How much farther did he have to go?” I asked. My friend grinned, “By the time we went up the road, turned into the trailer park and got back over to where he was going… maybe a quarter mile.”

At first, I thought it was a waste to time to give someone a ride that was no farther than that. But then, I remembered some of the times when I’d come to the end of my energy but not the end of my day. Five hundred fewer steps sure seems like a lot bigger deal when the long shadows stretch across the road in front of us in the work-worn ending of a hard day.

So, maybe the short ride given by my friend wasn’t a great big deal. But it was certainly worth doing.

H. Arnett
10/05/09