To the editor:

Just an hour ago, I was treated to an act of pure, completely unselfish kindness by a stranger, a woman at the Phillips 66 car wash at Ninth and Iowa. She was cleaning out the inside of her car with her 3-year-old daughter in the back seat of her mini van and happened to witness my bicycle’s inner tube explode at the adjoining air hose. The front tire was now inoperable, and I was trying to figure out how to get my mountain bike home to North Lawrence and thanking the stars that it was a freakishly warm January day. The woman in the mini van asked me if I wanted a ride home, and I said no on impulse, not wanting to be a burden but also because I didn’t trust strangers. I thanked her and walked across the street, looking for a phone so I could call a cab and then realizing that a cab most likely couldn’t accommodate me and my bike. Totally out of character for me, I walked back to the woman vacuuming her car and swallowed my pride and fear and asked her for that ride she’d offered.

She gave it to me without hesitation and wouldn’t accept any money. Kim (she only gave me her first name), I want to give you credit where credit is due and thank you graciously for saving my afternoon off and mainly, for opening my eyes and heart to the power of potential goodness in everyone. I’ll assuredly be paying this forward and looking for every opportunity to do so.