People are Good

Faith in humanity has been a hot topic in Burlington lately. With bicycle thefts and money being swindled from small businesses, it seemed that pretty much everybody sucks.

But today, the people of Burlington turned all that around. I've always thought that people are really willing to help each other out, but we don't because nobody ever asks. Perhaps my crazy German aunt, Tante Gisela, illustrated this best when we were walking around Berlin and she needed to pee. Without hesitation, she knocked on the nearest house door and simply asked to use the bathroom. The residents were more than happy to oblige, and that was that. (Although I thought she was a little crazy)

Yesterday I asked my neighbors for a loan to get a CSA share at a local farm. By 10 am today, I had six (SIX!) offers from strangers, happy to loan a college student a couple hundred bucks. I couldn't be a less safe bet (I mean, come on, I'm a college student who spent two weeks scrounging for food!), and yet so many people were willing to give me a shot. Wow.

So here's my conclusion: there are, actually, more good people than bad people out there, but the problem is that they don't ever really show their 'goodness.' If everyone were just a little less shy, then we could all do a better job helping each other out. That said, everybody should join the Front Porch Forum (frontporchforum.com)