I Remember The Man Who Found Me on the sidewalk after I'd been mugged. I'd been lying there in the cold for about a half-hour. He almost stepped on me because of the dark night. Alarmed at my condition, he suddenly found himself thrown into my predicament. He helped me up and half carried me to my apartment door, where I promised to call the police. I never found out his name and never saw him again.
Little did he know how much his tenderness and strength would help to break through my immediate feelings of vulnerability and sorrow. I loved my community, and to be violated like this broke my heart. And I can't help but think that if he had followed the cultural adage "Don't talk to strangers," who knows how long I would have been lying there that winter's night.
Most people would rally to someone's aid in an emergency, but what can be said about the general tendency of humankind to withdraw and be wary of extending a helping hand when someone needs it? What can prevent—or at least reverse—this indifference that almost everyone has felt?
