A Good Deed

Tonight I hiked up Stone Mountain with members of the Atlanta Outdoor Club.  It was a good time to go - evening and the sun starting to descend into the sky.  This is the second time I've done the hike up to the top at night, and with the temps in the 90s pretty consistently during the day, it was a much more enjoyable hike.

So about halfway up, at the steepest incline, was a little old Hispanic grandma clutching the railing and looking precariously close to teetering down the mountain.  I knew immediately that I had a choice.

Isn't it funny that we find ourselves in these moments of moral decision? Times when how we react really does say so much more about us than our words ever could.  In a moment we can choose to move on, to ignore, to conveniently change course or stop and see if there is a need.  But that would mean reaching out to a stranger.  Opening ourselves up from the shields that we can put in place to keep others at bay.  It can mean that we might actually have to do something.

So what choice did I make?

First I found that she only spoke broken English.  I speak almost no Spanish.  We communicated as best we could and finally I pointed to the top, then put out my hand.  And she took it.  We went one step at a time, stopping regularly to rest and for water.  We ascended the mountain and she thanked me as best she could.  Her family was waiting near the top, and I left her with them.

It would have been easier to go on ahead, but I actually knew that I had done a good deed.  Not to show that I was good.  Not because it was the right thing to do, but because in that instant of decision I made a choice.

What choice would you have made?