In which Tracy has a little rant about decency... and falls in love again!

One thing that has always annoyed me, consistently around the world is the lack of consideration people have for elderly, and for disabled people on the streets. It is more than a pet hate, it is a very serious wild-animal kind of hate that I have for people that stay seated when there are frail or elderly people standing on a bus… I keep track in each country that I visit, and I have to say that people all over the world are the same. It has been no different here…

On a train to Tigre (a river town about an hour from Buenos Aires) I stood and offered my seat to an old woman who was standing, and looked around at my companions on the train, expecting someone else to follow suit and give their seat to the lady’s husband, but people instead looked down at their books or out the window, pretending not to notice. I felt so annoyed, and wanted to publicly admonish them all, but my Spanish is nowhere near that good yet, and so I ended up doing nothing, and felt an odd sort of disappointment in the Argentinean locals… I guess after the flattery and kindness I had received from the people on the streets I expected more gallantry in that aspect too…

But thankfully, after I got off the train, not twenty minutes had passed before my faith was restored. I witnessed a truly beautiful interaction between a blind man and a stranger on the street. I was sitting on a street corner in Tigre just trying to get my bearings and work out where I was, when I saw a blind man walking along the street and approach the set of traffic lights. He waited at the lights for a long time, perhaps a bit confused by when to walk safely and which way to go next. I was across the road watching, and I saw at least ten people walk passed him, without even noticing than he was even there. I had no idea what to say to him in Spanish, but I was about to go and offer him my services with crossing the road anyway.

But then I saw a true act of selfless heroism that redeemed the whole nation in my eyes… A man was driving his car through the intersection, noticed the blind man at the lights, so stopped his car at the side of the road, and got out and walked the man across the intersection safely. He then pointed him in the right direction for where he wanted to go, before promptly getting back in his car again and driving off.

I seriously fell a little bit in love, I think, with that anonymous act of kindness! I felt like chasing the man down the street shouting 'Hello! What's your name? Your telephone number? Are you single? Will you marry me???' Seriously, though, it just made me wonder how much we could change the world by opening our eyes to the needs of others, and committing unprompted, anonymous acts of kindness for our fellow beings?