Friday, January 7, 2011

Single serving friends.

When I was at the top of Half Dome in Yosemite, my knee was in serious pain. At the time I didn't have much hiking experience and I had just climbed the eight mile path to the top. I was sitting there tying a handkerchief around my knee, when a fellow came up and asked: "Is your knee giving you trouble?" I told him it was and he asked if I wanted to borrow a knee brace. I told him that I would if he had one to lend. Oddly enough, he did. He said that he had brought three. Two for himself and one to lend. He was determined to be a friend to someone that day and I was the lucky guy.
I don't usually need help with repairs on my bike but I constantly see strangers being friends to cyclists. I do it myself with some regularity. Fixing a flat and mending a broken chain are pretty common on the mountainbike trails. If worse comes to worse, I've both towed and been towed out. Then there's the medical situations that occur. Overheating is pretty common. So is bonking from failure to properly fuel up prior to the ride. In both instances I've been the beneficiary and benefactor from and to strangers. Friends of the moment.
I've seen panhandlers handed a meal out the window of a stopped car. I myself will give a buck or two to anyone holding a sign proclaiming:"Why lie? I need a beer." If I have occassion to go into a McDonald's in San Francisco, I always get half a dozen extra double cheeseburgers and hand them out for the next block (if they last that long). I've watched the guys in three-piece suits playing chess with the dregs of society on chess boards sitting atop TV trays for $10 a game...only to toss them a leftover pack of smokes as they walk away, whether they win or lose.
Planting a tree for someone; repairing a house with Habitat for Humanity or just doing a friend-of-a-friend a favor. Dropping a dollar into a street musician's or busker's hat. Filling a gas can at a gas station for someone with no money. Handing off that box of leftover pizza to a street urchin. Helping to push the '87 Chevy off the road. Or just lending an ear for a time at a bar or on a plane.
The world is full of examples of people being friends to strangers. Just like in "Fight Club," these are our Single-serving friends.

1 comment:

  1. Great article Marsh! I love it when I get to a toll booth or fast food window and find the person who was in front of me paid for mine also. It's an amazing feeling that makes the world feel less cold.

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