Stopping to help

We were driving along today and I came up behind a car that was stalled.  As I went around them, I noticed they were an elderly couple.  I drove down the road aways, then decided maybe they needed help, so I turned around to help.  By the time I got back there, their car had started again and they were moving. 

I had to go way out of the way to turn around again.  So I asked myself, was it worth it?  Should I have kept going?  If I had come back an hour later, and they were still there, I would have felt horrible.  But why stop?

When I was younger, my dad would stop for anyone who needed help.  I guess I inherited his trait.  My mom has been broken down so many times and I've watched people just zoom on by, too busy with their own lives to stop. 

Have we really become so afraid that we'll get hurt that we won't stop, or is it a selfish need to not mess up our own schedule to help someone who is obviously having a worse day than we are?  Really, what are the odds of the person you stop to help being a psycho murderer.  If anything I think it's safer because a murderer wouldn't have much luck sitting on the side of the road!

Sometimes I will give money to homeless people, but more often than not I discreetly check my door locks and turn to talk to the kids so I don't have to deal with them.  Does this make me no better than the person who passes a fellow motorist?  The other day I gave Mike a hard time about his parking job when we were downtown.  A nearby homless woman launched into a tirade that started with "Oh my God, I have nothing else to worry about than..." then I got into the car.  She continued to yell at the car for 3 minutes.  I don't want to roll my window down to someone like that - and she looked "normal" until she started in.

Which leads me to my next thought - could I be her one day?  Obviously she has some mental illness, that progressed over the years until she couldn't hold on to anyone or anything.  Could that be me someday? Off my meds, wandering in the cold, yelling at strangers?  I would hope my kids would take care of me, even if Mike wasn't around, but you never know what they will remember. 

Anyway, just remember this next time you pass by a homeless person and intentionally ignore them, or fly by someone broken down on the side of the road.