A Kindred Spirit from Craigslist in Seattle

I saw this today on Craigslist and thought it was a great story.

RAVE RAVE RAVE: "I'll take you where you need to go"
Date: 2006-03-03, 4:46PM PST

So this morning I'm running late for school as usual and am cross and frustrated and tired after staying up all night to write a paper and generally just in a relatively "Blech" mood. Luckily I was able to make the bus, but only because it was held up with all the construction going on in front of U Village which has turned 45th into an absolute (if temporary) nightmare. So the bus is rumbling along and trying to get over amidst the dozen or little cars who are all determined to get ahead of us before the bus can switch into the lane it needs...

*Tangent* (Btw, you clowns ever read those "yield" signs on the back? Yeah, they're not kidding.. YIELD! Is being one car length in front of the bus really worth trying to vie for position with 15 tons of steel and glass with your little Hundai Accent? I got 5 bucks says who is going to win that battle!) *ahem*

As I was saying.. so the bus driver is just doing his damnedest (I recognize this is probably not really a word) to merge over and he makes it over just in time to make it to the next stop, which he does announce and when no one pulled the cord, he gratefully kept on trucking to turn out of the traffic mess onto campus. As we are waiting to go through the intersection at the light at 25th, a very old (like 90 if a day) blind man nervously asked if his stop had come yet... The bus driver instantly remembered that this man had asked to be let off at the last stop he'd just passed. This man was clearly hard of hearing (had giant hearing aids) and in no way could have known the stop was coming up to pull the cord. The driver had told him he'd remember to let him off there and then with all the traffic and stuff I guess he just forgot. (To his credit, he felt really really bad about it and was apologizing profusely). The old blind man was clearly scared and asked to be told where he was exactly but even though we weren't far from where he wanted to get off... it would have been very difficult for him to get back there because the sidewalk is not continuous. The driver offered to let him off at that corner and was trying to explain how to do it, but it was just too complicated for this guy. (I don't blame him, the 25th, 45th, montlake intersection is kind of convoluted for pedestrians.) The obviously distressed man finally decided that rather than risk it he'd just get off at the next stop and catch the next bus coming back the other way... With an "Are you sure?" the driver began to close the doors again but then.. from the back of the bus came a woman's voice....

"I'll take you where you need to go," she said as she made her way to the front. She turned to the driver and said, "I can take him" and with that the driver let the elderly blind man and the young woman in a black jacket and pink bandana in her hair off the bus. The bus was at the light for a moment or two longer and as I watched this woman gently talking to this man as she held his elbow and began escorting him safely to his destination I couldn't help but almost feel the kindness radiating off of her in his direction. They were beautiful. Her: looking very much the Seattle "granola girl" and him: frail, tapping his white cane in front of him. Say what you want about hippies, liberals, whatever... this woman displayed an unselfish compassion this morning that should put us all to shame, regardless of affiliation. You see, she didn't pull the cord either... she was obviously on her way to somewhere else, and chose instead to delay her plans to help this total stranger walk half a block to safety. I was humbled. Thank you, Ms. Kindest-Blue-Eyes-Ever for helping me to remember why we're all really here on this earth and for shaming me for my inaction to help my fellow man out of preoccupation with my own interests. I needed that. I think we all do. So RAVE RAVE RAVE RAVE to you! You not only made my morning, you made my co-workers mornings too when I walked into the lab and told them this story. Good on ya!

Signed, An anonymous girl you gently brushed past on the bus so you could do what we ALL should have been making our way forward to do