Keeping a promise to myself. Feel free to add your own stories.

Last summer, I passed a woman stranded on the side of the freeway in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. Like everyone else, I turned and looked at her for a second, then went on by at 75mph. After I looked at her, though, it didn't seem like she had a cell phone or a clue as to what she should do. 15 miles later, at the next exit (I told you it was the middle of nowhere), I turned around to see if she was still there. Half an hour after I had first seen her, there she was, now just sitting by her pickup truck. So I turned around at the next exit in the opposite direction, and 15 minutes later I came upon a green truck covered with W04/Support Our Troops/Jesusfish stickers. I pulled over, got out of my car, and asked her if there was anything I could do to help. She was quite grateful and allowed me to drive her to a payphone in the next town.

For the fun part, follow me over the flip...

The fun part was, she had to listen to Al Franken on XM for the 15 minute ride, and think about how a flaming liberal was the only person in deeply red rural Indiana who had stopped to help her out. This amused me so much that I wanted to diary it at the time. I decided that the good deed karma had already been cancelled out by my amusement, so posting the story online would cheapen the whole experience. I promised myself, however, that I would post the story
if one condition were ever met. Today it was.

This morning, on a small state highway in an even more red and rural part of Indiana, one of my front tires blew out.

I limped the car off the highway and onto a side road where I could change the tire. It wasn't as traffic-free as I had hoped, and a few cars had to swerve around me. One of these was a blue SUV. As I was struggling to get the lugnuts off the wheel, I saw the SUV turn around and come back up the road toward me. It pulled up, the window rolled down, and a woman asked me if I had everything under control. I said yes, staring at all of the "Vote Life" and "Abortion is Murder" stickers on her car. She asked if I had checked to make sure that the spare was inflated. I said, yes, I had checked, but thank you very much for stopping. I appreciate it. She said no problem, people should help each other. Then she rolled up her window and drove off.

So, I had promised myself that if a die-hard Bush supporter ever helped me out when I was stranded on the side of the road, I would diary it here, and give credit where credit is due. Right-wing Indiana and I are even up, and I have new hope that some conservative Christians actually are. Anybody else have a story of cross-chasm kindness?