The kindness of strangers

Tonight, the train was very cramped and I had to share a four-seater with another passenger. Turns out he was an Amtrak staffer (I know this because the conductor recognized him and asked him to tell her where the circuit breaker for the power strip on my side of the train was so she could reset it [I was her guinea pig to test the power since I had my laptop out already; it was working]). A hour or so into the trip, he stood up to get some stuff out of his bag, and tapped me on the shoulder to offer me a small bottle of water. After confirming that he carried extra, I accepted (I hope graciously) and we chatted a bit about the other thing he pulled out of his bag: a copy of Angels and Demons Dan Brown's “prequel” to The Da Vinci Code.

We are both keeping an open mind about the movie, but a little concerned about Tom Hanks being the star of the movie. As my fellow passenger said though, Tom is “very versatile” so maybe he'll surprise us.

Anyway, the whole thing made me realize that I need to get a little better about carrying stuff to share during my commute. This was a man's random act of kindness, and as someone who believes that those acts are what differentiate humans from lesser mammals, I realized I better get on the stick and start contributing my own random acts to society while I have the means to do so.
In the scale of things, a little thing of sharing water with me probably does more to improve my day than most things (that is, other than being with my family).
It's interesting too that this man's offer of water is on it's face a much kinder act than last Friday's offer of whiskey from one of the regular riders who had brought a bottle along to share. [For the record, I declined the offer]