A Generous Act in NOT SO Generous Place

This world is not a generous place to live and the reason for this is ‘us’. We, as the responsible citizens of this planet are given immense powers to make or break our lives but we choose to shatter it with all the self-centered dreams, desires and developments. In the process of ruining the present and future, few people have managed to keep the respect for the elders ‘intact’. A very small but thoughtful incidence happened at the Boston International Airport in the afternoon of Sunday, the August 30, 2009. For sure this went unnoticed by the insolent crowd surrounding an old couple, in their 70s, on their respective wheelchairs.

The husband and wife were waiting to board on their flight to Atlanta. That day, due to inclement weather conditions in Atlanta, all the flights coming in and going out of the Atlanta airport were cancelled. The passengers including the couple on the wheelchair were eager to reach their destinations but the long wait due to the delay in the flights added to the misery of the passengers. Nobody could do anything but wait. Somehow, but with a lot of struggle the husband managed to get up to go to the restroom, while the wife waited for him like the sunflower waiting for the sun to rise and looking around to see him coming. Their wheelchairs were parked diagonally to my seat however still far enough from my attention as I was busy in my thoughts which were eating my mind like the termite eating a log of wood. Hence the difficult attempt of the husband to come back and sit on his wheelchair missed my attention. The husband’s two unsuccessful tries to hold the wheelchair and wife’s efforts to hold it still for her husband crossed my eyes but not my senses to get up and help them.

Suddenly a man seated next to the old lady who occupied the adjacent seat beside me, stood up and helped the old man get on the seat and not only that, the generous man also bent down to straighten the leg rest for him so he doesn’t have to do it. Later on I noticed that the old lady sitting next to this gentleman was his mother who herself was on a wheelchair. Who could better understand the pain of the old couple basking their old age with the only support of each other. No one in the crowd standing in the line in front of them had the generosity to help them settle down. This included me, since I was sitting right behind, looking at them and still did not notice. As soon as the generous man got up to help them, it caught my eyes and my mind and I realized, even I was ignorant and selfish to not do anything. The croissant with butter melted in my mouth and so did my heart to see how dependent they were on others for their own existence.

History will repeat itself and we all do and will go through these situations, the point is how far you go to make an everlasting impression on a stranger like this generous man did.

I would like to conclude by thanking the man who opened my senses and helped me open other's senses (if at all they read it and liked it). Next time if a needy person needs help, I would get up and be the first person to offer. And I really mean it.