Good Intentions

What I have recently discovered during my very short excursions outside my house is that there are people who are always willing to help out in any way they can.

 Earlier this week as I made my way to the main lobby of our condo, I was confronted with a situation; the double door exit.  I have to push open one heavy glass door, which brings me to a small vestibule, only to have to repeat the process with another glass door to actually exit the foyer. I struggled and giggled and sweat my way through the first door, dropping a crutch, then recovering from a cartoonish arm waving loss of balance. I approach the second door and notice someone is approaching from the other side; I was already in the midst of attempting to open the second door. A young lady took it upon herself to offer me assistance by opening the door herself, however she really didn’t think it through. (I already had my hand strategically wrapped on the door handle while delicately balancing crutches and Zipperfoot to avoid mishap.) She quickly pulled open the door from her end, causing me to lose balance and careen into her; generously infringing on the personal space of a perfect stranger. My first reaction was to give her a piece of my mind at her obvious lack of foresight. However I refrained, how was she to know what the outcome would be?  She had good intentions.

On one of my Las Vegas trips a few years back I was caught in a similar situation. I was floating upwards on a mammoth 2 story escalator at one of the hotels on the Strip. Behind me was a cute elderly couple pleasantly chatting. We were literally steps from the top, when the gentleman lost his balance and began to tumble down the escalator. I quickly (taking the remaining steps 2 at a time) jetted to the top and slammed on the emergency stop.  I hurried down; by this point he had tumbled excruciatingly half way down the escalator. It was awful. His arms were skinned and he was moaning with pain. As I proceeded to assist him (with the aid of his wife), he became irate with me. He was verbally attacking me because he was halfway down a stopped escalator with no way to walk up. I was dumbfounded; I thought I was helping him by stopping the escalator; potentially saving him from a more severe injury. He viewed it as a terrible journey he was going to have to make up hill on his own without the mechanical aid of the escalator.  I actually sheepishly climbed the remainder of the escalator upwards away from him and his irate state, and did what I could only do at this point- call security. 

Any lesson I’ve learned from being on both sides of the equation; ask before you offer assistance.  If the person refuses- walk away and don’t feel any type of penitence. Sometimes pride and conscience from either side can get in the way of better judgement.

 Accepting or giving assistance graciously can sometimes be harder than anyone would like to admit.