angelaharms

I have a couple of cool car-free stories...

First, my next door neighbor LENT ME THEIR CAR to pick my kids up from the airport last week. Can you believe that?! We've been neighbors for a year, and our kids play, but we certainly aren't close friends. Amazing. Then, the next day, she gave us a ride to urgent care with another kid. (Turned out fine, thanks.) She *so* got a case of beer...

Second story is more current... One kid is going to camp tomorrow, and parents are dropping their kids off at a local park to get on the bus. Problem is that my kid travels under his own power, so we will get to the park with a bike to deal with. Can't leave it on the bike rack--it'd be stolen for sure. But, thanks to the wonders of the internet, our problem is solved...

I sent a message to our local group of what I affectionately call eco-freaks, and someone I don't even know has offered to let us park his bike in their locked bike shed, within a block of the park, for the week he's gone.

Aren't people wonderful?!

I'm feeling very warm and fuzzy at the moment.

mattm

maybe the world ain't so bad after all..

bragi

Sometimes, reading posts on these forums, or even the news, one can get the impression that most people either throw things at bicyclists from passing cars, act mean and nasty in traffic just because they can, steal anything that isn't nailed down, blow each other up over relatively minor theological differences, or invade smaller, weaker nations just to show everyone how big their, um, army is. Thanks for the reminder that the vast majority of humans are decent and kind.

mike

Yes, people are indeed wonderful. There is a tremendous amount of goodness and extraordinary kindness done by people every day.

We don't always hear about it, but in general, people are kind to each other.

As it turns out, the world is a good place to live, thanks to people.

wahoonc

We used to call it being neighborly, but that has gotten so out of vogue with the "me" generation

Aaron

keiththesnake

Could it be karma?

angelaharms

It couldn't not be, keiththesnake. It's all cause and effect.

Know what's funny? The other day I ran across a couple of kids on the bike path. One was standing over a bike with the chain off, and I asked if he wanted help. "Yeah." So I moved the bike and put the chain back on, then I see that his friend is sitting by the side of the path, hurt. His arm looks broken.

So I do the mommy thing, and we wait for a parent to come to take them to the hospital. And I gave them my (fortunately, cheap) U-lock to lock their bikes up until someone could come back for them.

The next day, we biked my son to the camp pick-up place, and forgot to bring his sleeping bag. A mama there was sitting on a comforter in the park while waiting for the bus, and she got up and gave it to us. There was a second thing, too, that happened, but I can't remember what that was. What an amazing universe.

gerv 

The last time I had a "Pass it On" moment, I ran into 2 ladies about 20 miles out of town. One of them had a flat tire, had used her last air cylinder... I stopped and pulled out my trusty Topeak pump, thinking I had it all solved.

After commiserating with them for 20 minutes, I couldn't get the pump working. I've been riding 2 years with this pump and never figured out how to use it. Luckily, no flats on the bike...

But there is nothing more distressing than trying to do good and realizing you are totally useless

uke

Each generation is, as a rule, less bigoted and more tolerant than the generation that came before it. Rather than yearning for good old days that never were (the eighties and the Cold War? the seventies when AIDS was punishment for teh gays? the sixties when we killed millions in Vietnam? the fifties when we lynched blacks for trying to vote? how far back would you like to go?), I'd rather invest in the present to make for better tomorrows. I don't mean to get off-topic, but it always gets me when people spend more time trashing young people than trying to teach them how to make things better than they were able to.

Thanks for the story, OP.

Artkansas 

Not in this forum. Kar-free-ma possibly.

wahoonc

I guess this generations legacy is going to be drive-by shootings, and gansta crap. I have been around since the 60's. I grew up in neighborhoods where neighbors watched out for each other, sat on their porches and when someone started hanging around that wasn't from the neighborhood, it was known and reported. Now people don't know the person that lives next to them, you report a strange van parked in front of a out of town neighbor's house the is little to no response, they come home and find their house has be burglarized and all anybody can say, is yeah I saw the van but didn't think anything of it. Turns out the plates were stolen, the van is stolen and they have no leads on $50,000 worth of stolen household items.

I am not saying all neighborhoods are this way, but too many of them are. People today don't want to get involved.

Aaron

Artkansas 

I don't think you can qualify it by generations. In the early 70's I lived in the section of L.A. that was home to the Crips. My house was subjected to one of the first drive-by shootings. The term didn't even exist yet, and the police were confused about why anyone would shoot into a house from a car. My Dad lived 8 blocks from me and never locked his house all the time he lived there. I'm pretty sure that all times have such a mixture. Human nature has both tendencies.

gwd

Well someone was aware enough to identify the van. What is going on now is that people who should talk to each other aren't. One good thing about living car free is that it removes a bit of the isolation among neighbors. Just this weekend I got two parents to sit down and talk. Their kids had been friends for years but they never chatted or had any contact. What an eye opener for both! The moms would drive by and drop the kids off and never park the cars. Living car free might not help this extreme situation I'm just using it as an example of the isolation among people who shouldn't be isolated. The isolation fosters the "I don't want to get involved." attitude.