The Good Samaritans on the Highway

ive weeks had already passed, but the images of my car rolling violently down the ditch on the side of the highway still haven't escaped my mind. There was no good reason why I should have gotten into an accident. The highway was pretty much empty. I was not going extremely fast, just the speed limit. The weather was as beautiful as can be. The sky was deep blue with wispy white clouds strewn throughout the canvass. On either side of me, the scenery was mesmerizing in its natural beauty.

Now that I reflect on what happened, perhaps it was such peacefulness that gave way to the primary reason for my solo accident--sleepiness. Sleepiness came upon me also as quickly as the time it took for the accident too occur. I wasn't alone in the car, however, because a friend was accompanying me on the trip. When he alerted me after I had dosed off, I had discovered that my car was on the loose gravel laid on the shoulder and heading towards the ditch. Responding to instinct, I tried to correct the mistake. But by overcorrecting, I made the situation even worse and the car spun out of control, heading towards the left side of the highway, then found itself flipping and rolling down the left side of the highway.

Having recounted my accident, I shall say here that this reflection is not to give an account of the terrible ordeal but rather to describe what happened immediately after that. In many ways, this accident opened my eyes to the beauty that exist in human relationships.

Because the highway was out of the city, there was not too many resources to turn to for help, or so my friend and I thought. I feared that we would have to walk a good distance before we could find a telephone. But as soon as we headed up the highway leaving behind our car with its opened doors, broken windows and windshields, and our bags flung out of the car and laid scattered on the ground, a man had already stopped ahead of us and approached us with his cell phone. He proceeded to call the police in order to report the accident. Only a few minutes later, a second man stopped by with his struck after seeing our predicament. He introduced himself and offered to take my friend to the hospital for by this time we discovered that my friend had suffered glass cuts and was bleeding quite profusely. He spoke confidently to the sheriff on the phone and declared that he was a former EMS and would take responsibility for taking my friend to a hospital located about eight miles away.

After my friend had gone to the emergency room in order to get checked out, the first gentleman continued to stay in order to comfort me. Even though he was supposed to meet his family at that time, he decided to call his wife to postpone for a bit so that he could wait with me. While waiting for the sheriff to come, he continued to help me clean up around the car, and to give me words of comfort.

It was not only these two gentlemen, but also other people continued to stop by the site and asked if we needed assistance. Even at that moment when I was suffering from the distress of the accident, I could not help but be moved by the overwhelming generosity that these total strangers showed me. This generosity also extended to the sheriff, the ambulance personnel, and the fire department volunteers who arrived soon after to take care of the situation and help clear up.

A gentleman then drove me to the hospital to meet my friend where I found his driver was still hanging about to wait for me and to see if my friend was okay. The doctor and the nurses in the hospital too showed their kindness towards us and did everything they could to make us feel comfortable.

Perhaps it sounds peculiar to say, but if one were to ever get into an accident, I cannot think of a better way to go through this experience. Never before have I seen such kindness shown to complete strangers. For these people who rushed to our help, there was no thinking about what they were doing. It did not matter that I was Vietnamese and not American. It did not matter that they had other things occupying their schedule. What they saw was two people in a terrible predicament and that they had the means to extend a helping hand. I believe that these people were doing exactly what Jesus asks of all of us, to be good Samaritans when we see that others need our help. In the gospel, when a Samaritan saw a stranger robbed and left to die on the road, he did not care about the differences between him and the victim who was a Jew. He immediately helped the man, binding his wound and taking him to an inn in order to receive the necessary care. His sympathy for the stranger was indicated through his concrete and helpful actions.

Though this accident was a terrible event in my life, my eyes were opened to the wonderful things that people can do for each other. It was a lesson in love that drives close to home because I was not learning it by listening to others talking or by watching on the television. Instead, I was experiencing it directly in a strong and profound way. Having experienced the kindness of others, I believe that I too am called to demonstrate the same selflessness and generosity when I am needed. In a world where we often focus on the negative, my experience recently was a positive thing that has affected me profoundly and in many ways changed my life. This accident has helped me to look at friends differently, look at family differently, and look at strangers differently. I only pray that when it is my turn to be a Good Samaritan, I will be like the strangers who stopped on the highway to help me.