A Story to Make Us All Feel Good about Humanity

        Mike and I hiked up Mt. Elijah last Sunday. The wildflowers were spectacular. The weather was great for hiking. We weren't backpacking, but I also didn't see any reason to carry extra weight, so instead of taking my whole pocketbook, with its unnecessary paraphernalia, I just took out of it a small paper envelope with my driver's license, two credit cards, and my Golden Eagle pass to all National Parks and stuck it in my pocket. Then I drove up to the trailhead with Mike, many miles up gravel roads and at the end of a half-mile of a horrendously rocky and steep road. And then, as I said, we had a great hike.

        The next day I went to town, pocketbook in hand, but the first time I reached into my pocketbook to buy something, I realized I must have left that little packet of cards at home, still in the pocket of my shorts, I guessed. I wasn't too concerned about it; it was only a minor inconvenience. I went to the bank and got enough cash for everything I needed to do in town. I was a little uneasy about driving without my license with me, but I drive carefully, and my chances were good at not needing to show it.

      When I got home in the late afternoon and walked up to the house, I saw something lying on my doorknob. It was my little packet of cards – my driver's license, credit cards, etc. A torn scrap of paper stuck in the packet said, "Found at the Sturgis trailhead. Friends from the trail."

        I was, needless to say, profoundly grateful. (A concurrent emotion was horror at my carelessness and what an alternative outcome of that carelessness might have been.)

        I wish I had been at home to open the door and greet those friends from the trail with a big thank-you hug. I wish I knew their names so I could look up an address and send them a thank-you. Maybe "friends from the trail" is literal. Maybe they were friends of mine who already knew where I lived. Maybe they knew my name from my years on Jefferson Public Radio. Maybe they were hiking the Sturgis Fork trail because they had read about it in my book, Favorite Trails of the Applegate. Maybe, if they hadn't known me before, they'll Google me and find this blog and read about my gratitude.

        My carelessness in dropping my important cards is not the part of this story that should make us feel better about ourselves. Forget that part. The important part is that there are people in this world who not only are honest enough to return what belongs to someone else to that person but are kind enough to take the trouble to find out where that person lives and to drive to that person's house to deliver the lost items. I am profoundly grateful not only to have recovered my important documents but also for the reconfirmation of the goodness of humanity. It's that that I'm passing on to you who are reading this post: that there is much good in this world and many good people who are honest and kind.

      Don't forget it. And remember to always be one of them.