A ViewPoint by Paula Trimble-Familetti
Somewhere between the hardware store and donating blood, I lost a $2,000 check. I went back to the hardware store. “No, no one turned in an addressed, stamped envelope.” I went back to the bloodmobile. “No, we don’t see an envelope.” I went back to the car and searched, but to no avail. It was gone. So much for my good feelings about donating blood.
I stopped payment on the check. Every day, I looked at my account online to see if someone had tried to cash it. Two weeks after I lost it, it showed up as the payment for my credit card account. That is what I had intended the check for. Some wonderful person had found it and stuck it in the mail. Wow! Of course, there will be a bit of a kerfuffle with the bank, but the great news is, the check is at the bank. Better, there is someone out there, someone I will never be able to thank, who just did the right thing, the decent thing.
My neighbor used to drive a city bus. He said the people on the bus who appeared to need the money the most were the first to turn in a wallet or purse if they found one.
Of course, as a woman of faith, I prayed about the whole mess and tried not to beat myself up too much. I am grateful that my prayers were answered. But I am more thankful for that person. There are times and people that restore my faith in humanity and in the power of prayer. Lately, during COVID isolation, I have needed that restoration. The simple act of dropping my envelope in the mail was an act of love. They may not have thought about it like that, but I do. The person who found my check does not know anything about me. I do not know anything about them. We all face the threat of plague, economic instability, unemployment, climate change, and civil unrest. They may have needed a little financial help, but they were honest and kind. This person acted for the good of another. I would venture to say that kind of action is at the heart of our spiritual traditions, some variation of “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Now is an extraordinary time. We are encouraged to keep our distance and stay out of large groups. Many of us are not going to our houses of worship, and that can be hard. It is also easy to watch the news and think it is all bad. My sister says she is breaking up with breaking news.
It is not all bad! Some strangers will drop an envelope into the mail just because it is the right thing to do.
© 2020 by Christian Feminism Today.
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