Earlier tonight, I had an evening packed with errands/life. I had an appointment in Palo Alto later in the evening but before that I needed to pick up a prescription from Safeway, change into workout clothes, get an hour of cardio at the gym, cleanup/become un-sweaty again, grab a quick bite to eat, and commute the 20 – 30 minutes from Mountain View to Palo Alto. And it all had to get done in just a few hours. Needless to say, I was in a pretty determined/focused mode to get it all done in time. My first errand was to pick up my prescription on the way to the gym. I walked into Safeway with a determined stride, one that usually doesn’t bode well with laid-back Californians. I quickly make my way through hyperactive children and slow carts to the pharmacy in the back of the store, only to find that there was a long line. I was surprised and frustrated – how could there be a line? There’s never a line! And why today of all days? I looked up at the front of the line to identify the cause of the delay. A frail elderly woman was picking up her prescriptions and getting some information from the pharmacist. A man in his late 30s/early 40s stood beside her. He was holding a walking stick and then I realized that he was blind. After completing her transaction, the woman slowly made her way back to her cart, with the blind man following her by holding on to her shoulder. Seeing these two people making the best of their situation really struck me. Here I was worried about something trivial and irrelevant like making sure that I could get all of my yuppie errands done and here were these two who were struggling just to complete a task that I was taking for granted. As I waited in line, I continued to think about them and a gush of emotions swept through me as I thought about how lucky and blessed I am to have what I have. I kept thinking about what it would be like to live their experience.
As I was driving on Shoreline to get to the gym, I saw the elderly woman walking home while still slowly pushing the cart down the street and with the blind man in tow. Their courage inspired me but at the same time, I was extremely sad that we live in such a me-centered society (that also happens to be the wealthiest nation on the planet) where two people who both clearly need help can only find it in each other. A few minutes after I passed them, I kicked myself for not stopping and offering a ride or help of some sort. Even though I felt bad for them, I wasn’t any better than the rest of the society I was condemning. I didn’t get involved and I stuck to my plan, got to the gym early, and checked off a task from my mental to-do list.
There’s a part of me that wonders what would happen to me if I needed that kind of help all the time. Who would help me? Who would look after me? The pessimist in me thinks that nobody would. But that’s not exactly true. I know people would help . . . just not that many.
It makes me sad that I live in a world where it’s acceptable to look away – simply because we don’t want to get involved.