“We all need each other.” Leo Buscaglia American author, lecturer and expert on love

We've all seen the commercial, only I don't remember the product, where someone is helping a total stranger. They give them a seat on a subway, then that person stops someone else from carelessly walking out in traffic, and then that individual picks up a toddler's dropped toy and gives it to it's mother.

Well, I actually saw that happen myself today on the way home from work. Imagine five lanes of traffic wide, two turning left, two going straight ahead and a right turning lane all waiting for the traffic light to change. It's a long light and a kid and his mom are in the car right behind mine. The kid has a baseball and is playing with it hanging out the open car window. As his luck would have it, he has tempted fate once too often, the ball falls to the payment and rolls away.

A guy in the car to the right of them jumps out, goes around the front of it, quickly looks for oncoming traffic, and picks up the ball that has rolled to the curb. . He checks for traffic once again, waves thanks to an auto that had stopped and gives the surprised kid back his ball. Not only is the kid surprised but mom has suddenly stopped her cell phone conversation and has started to pay attention to the whole scenario that has just unfolded in front of her.

The guy gets back in his vehicle and everyone's eyes return back to being riveted to the traffic signal that has held them in suspended animation. The world of the evening rush hour has retuned back to normal and everyone drives off to his or her destination.

If I hadn't seen the rush hour vignette, I would have thought like others "yah right, here's that impossible commercial again. This stuff only happens in Television." Was I wrong. Or…was that the intent of the commercial in the first place. Was the script writer saying to all of us "it doesn't have to be any other way than this. Kindness is catching; pass it on."

It does work, and I did pass it on. I came home and swept up broken glass from the street in front on a neighbor's house. I helped another neighbor look for his car keys that were thought to be lost in his lawn. I wrote this blog so that you can see that helping others not only gives them assistance but creates a good feeling in you as well. In the words of Jesus (Luke 10:37): "go, and do thou likewise."

K.