It is a universal truth that adversity brings people together and also that you can judge a person not by how they act in the good times but in the bad. There was a months worth of rain that fell in Toronto last night. This knocked out power in over 80 percent of the most populated city in Canada. The hotel I was saying at quickly booked up with stranded commuters and other folks seeking refuge. Here is what I saw and did: I met three women and two men who were commuters who almost ran out of gas. They were hungry and so I took them up to the club level where they stocked up on food and water and wine and soda, all complimentary to those staying on the club level. Then we went to the hotel bar where the bartender who I have become friends with hooked us up with drinks. We talked and laughed for 7 hours. A band was stranded and started playing music and taking requests. As it turned out, they were 3 people from different bands who were jamming. But you would think they played together for years. People bought them food and drink and even have them money as appreciation for them taking lemons and making a lemonade stand in the hotel bar. Eventually one of the ladies I met had her husband arrive with two gas cans. He filled her car and the car of the sisters I also met. Would not accept any money. One guy I met, a Canadian citizen originally from Brazil, works for a company that clears people to travel freely from the US to Canada and Mexico. He hooked me up with a way for me to travel to and from US, Canada and Mexico and introduced me to Creemore Springs beer. All that to say, people are inherently good. The good will always outnumber the bad. It is just that the bad make the news and therefore we are conditioned to think people are bad. And we were all strangers once and it is not always a bad thing to talk to strangers. In fact I would say 99 percent of the time it is good to talk to strangers. For we are all strangers in a strange land.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 03:53:04 +0000