So I caught the show "What Would You Do" last night...if you have not seen this show, it puts people to the test to see what they would do in certain situations..whether they would get involved or pass by. There was a segment in which first, a well - dressed young lady (actress) walking down the street suddenly fell pretending to have passed out and it would not be a couple of minutes before someone would stop and help her. Next, they would have a man (actor) dressed as a homeless man with a beer can in his hand suddenly go down and folks were stepping over him and were unmistakeably ignoring him. Except for this one little precious lady named Linda Hamilton, who herself had been homeless at times.. had no phone but tenaciously planted herself by this man while asking every person who passed by to call 911 for this gentleman. She was very calm and not anxious or excited but just stood by him repeating to ever person who walked by to please call for help for this man. She went so far as to give him a name "Billy" she would say "get up Billy" and "Billy, are you alright?" She, having to use a cane to walk herself, then reached down and removed the beer can discarding it in the nearby trash can and was finally able to stop a lady who then called for help. Once this nicely dressed business type lady made the decision that she would intervene, several others began to get involved, as well. When the experiment had ended and everyone was told that this was indeed an experiment to study the reaction of those passing by and those who would stop and help, this very warm compassionate little lady, Linda Hamilton, on her cane just walked away wanting and expecting nothing - no thank you, no glory, nothing.
Watching this made me think about myself...am I an arm outstretched or a passer by?
Do we get our hands dirty? Is our fellow man worth it to us? It was almost scary watching this as all of those people just passed this man by..have we become so conditioned to seeing hurting people that we are willing just to step over or around them?
I am so thankful that I have had many Linda Hamiltons in my life who have not passed me by....
and I pray that I never miss a moment myself to be that hand or that voice that will cry out on the behalf of another.
