Trust Your Gut

This is Susan. Yesterday I had an experience in the morning that reaffirmed my faith in man while simultaneously causing me to question man's apathy. On the return leg of my four-mile run, my nose began to bleed. I'm sure the reason was the additional breathing in through the nose and increased blood pressure (mine is low so I know it wasn't that alone) that caused this most aggravating situation. Of all days, I did not have any tissues with me!! So as I walked along a very busy street in my home town, I had my right arm up in the air so that I could hold the sleeve of my t-shirt against my nose. Well, blood is getting all over my shirt. It is about 6:30am, traffic is heavy and I had no place to sit and wait for it to subside unless I sat on the sidewalk. I made it to a small gym and asked the owner for some paper towels (which he gave me and he then went back to working out) and began walking home...I had about 1-1/2 miles to go. I was somewhat surprised in my 1/2 mile trek thus far that nobody stopped to ask if I was okay. Then someone did. A fifty-ish man in his work truck saw me, knew I was in a situation, turned his truck around and asked if I was okay. I explained my situation and he offered a ride home. Initially I said no, thank you, I would walk. He asked again, told me he didn't mind and that I shouldn't be walking home with my nose bleeding like it was. So, yes, I trusted my gut and accepted the ride. He did as he said he would and brought me to my house. He, too, runs and so does his wife. He was an extremely kind person and his concern was genuine. 

Now I was hesitant in saying anything to my friends or on this blog as 'you should never accept a ride from a stranger, never'. But I did because I had to trust my gut and use my common sense. He wasn't cruising the main streets looking for a damsel in distress who he could take advantage of. He did what I would have done in the same situation. Stopped and asked if he could help. This, too, can get a person in trouble, it could be a ploy...but what kind of people are we if we can't step back and say, "Hey, that could be my mother, my sister, my friend. I would want someone to stop and ask, "Are you okay?"" I don't know how many cars zoomed past me. Did they see my situation? Maybe not all of them...but some did. I don't know what they were thinking but this situation and another that I will write about on another day have shifted how I, personally, look at the world.

I'm a photographer. Photographers need to look at the world in more detail...see the things most people walk past, step over and ignore...and sometimes that look needs to be with our heart and soul, not just our eyes.