To listen to -
THIS I BELIEVE: About Heroes - https://soundcloud.com/valerie-k-reid/this?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email&utm_content=https://soundcloud.com/valerie-k-reid/this
THIS I BELIEVE
About Heroes
As the child of a very moral mother, I was handed many rules for a virtuous life. They all seemed to boil down to one - the Golden One: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. This, to me, was the only way to live. I made it a rule to follow that rule, and took it for granted that everyone else did, too.
But by the age of eighteen, my childhood ideals were being shattered on a daily basis. Disillusionment was literally making me sick. I desperately needed to believe that there were still people who practiced what they preached. I needed to know that, although it was not easy, people still played by the rules – especially the Golden One.
Early December, in my nineteenth year, I began work as a receptionist in an Ad Agency in Chicago. I’d taken a year off from college and hadn’t a dime to my name. I'd worked nearly a month before my first paycheck finally arrived, three days before Christmas, and - unusual teenager that I was – presents for my family was my highest priority. I cashed my paycheck at lunch and, giddy with money, planned to stay in the city and buy my gifts that night.
My plans changed when a slight cold turned wretched, and I took the train back to the suburbs, instead. Once home, I went in my purse for an aspirin and discovered a terrible thing. . My wallet was missing. My wallet, containing over a thousand dollars in cash.
Heartsick, I realized it must have fallen out when I’d reached for my commuter pass. Even worse, there was not one shred of identification in that wallet. I’d moved everything to a new leather card case I’d received for my birthday. One thousand dollars cash, lying on the floor of a commuter train in Metropolitan Chicago, three days before Christmas. Hopeless.
It was a dismal girl who answered the office phones the next day. Until just after lunch when it was my mother calling.
“Val! Someone found your wallet. There was no ID, but there was a jeweler’s stub. He tracked down the shop, and got your name and phone number from the jeweler. He just called! He has your wallet!!”
My hand shook as I dialed the number he'd given my mother; I was weak with amazement.
We talked. We met. He returned my wallet and every last dollar.
Forty years later, I still see his face. His eyes were blue and sparkling - lit by the joy that fills our souls when we give joy to others for no other reason than to give them joy. The only reward he would take was a kiss.
This man, this stranger, could have kept my money (who would ever have known?) But he didn’t. He knew The Golden Rule and he actually lived by it.
Heroes, I believe, are simply ordinary people who manage to do one of the hardest things there is – live their beliefs.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
This man, this stranger, was my hero that day. He came to my rescue, the way a hero does, when I needed it most. More than my money had been restored.
THIS I BELIEVE: About Heroes - https://soundcloud.com/valerie-k-reid/this?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email&utm_content=https://soundcloud.com/valerie-k-reid/this
THIS I BELIEVE
About Heroes
As the child of a very moral mother, I was handed many rules for a virtuous life. They all seemed to boil down to one - the Golden One: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. This, to me, was the only way to live. I made it a rule to follow that rule, and took it for granted that everyone else did, too.
But by the age of eighteen, my childhood ideals were being shattered on a daily basis. Disillusionment was literally making me sick. I desperately needed to believe that there were still people who practiced what they preached. I needed to know that, although it was not easy, people still played by the rules – especially the Golden One.
Early December, in my nineteenth year, I began work as a receptionist in an Ad Agency in Chicago. I’d taken a year off from college and hadn’t a dime to my name. I'd worked nearly a month before my first paycheck finally arrived, three days before Christmas, and - unusual teenager that I was – presents for my family was my highest priority. I cashed my paycheck at lunch and, giddy with money, planned to stay in the city and buy my gifts that night.
My plans changed when a slight cold turned wretched, and I took the train back to the suburbs, instead. Once home, I went in my purse for an aspirin and discovered a terrible thing. . My wallet was missing. My wallet, containing over a thousand dollars in cash.
Heartsick, I realized it must have fallen out when I’d reached for my commuter pass. Even worse, there was not one shred of identification in that wallet. I’d moved everything to a new leather card case I’d received for my birthday. One thousand dollars cash, lying on the floor of a commuter train in Metropolitan Chicago, three days before Christmas. Hopeless.
It was a dismal girl who answered the office phones the next day. Until just after lunch when it was my mother calling.
“Val! Someone found your wallet. There was no ID, but there was a jeweler’s stub. He tracked down the shop, and got your name and phone number from the jeweler. He just called! He has your wallet!!”
My hand shook as I dialed the number he'd given my mother; I was weak with amazement.
We talked. We met. He returned my wallet and every last dollar.
Forty years later, I still see his face. His eyes were blue and sparkling - lit by the joy that fills our souls when we give joy to others for no other reason than to give them joy. The only reward he would take was a kiss.
This man, this stranger, could have kept my money (who would ever have known?) But he didn’t. He knew The Golden Rule and he actually lived by it.
Heroes, I believe, are simply ordinary people who manage to do one of the hardest things there is – live their beliefs.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
This man, this stranger, was my hero that day. He came to my rescue, the way a hero does, when I needed it most. More than my money had been restored.