Last night we took a ride from a stranger.
No, not an Uber or Taxi.
A real stranger.
Well, we had chatted briefly at the restaurant and I had asked the server to call us a taxi back to our hotel. He said he, and his partner, were also staying there and they would be happy to give us a ride.
I confirmed with his server, in front of him, that he had only had a Diet Coke to drink.
Normally, this would be a red flag.
The ‘only had a Diet Coke’ thing, I mean.
I mean, who does that?
We’re in beautiful Fredericton, New Brunswick.
It’s a small-ish city of about 83,000.
It is friendly town and immediately hypnotizes any visitor into the mindset that not everyone wants to kill you.
Fools.
We met his table of friends, all locals, and then met his partner who seemed more concerned about having us in her car than we were about getting into her car.
That’s a good sign.
Unless she was thinking “Not again… I just cleaned the car from the last middle-aged couple we bludgeoned to death.”
We left the restaurant and myself, Shannon, his partner, and our new friend got into the vehicle parked directly across the street.
Off we went.
Only twice during the short journey did I briefly think we had made a fatal mistake and were going to be robbed and/or murdered.
Then we arrived at the hotel parking lot, gave our thanks and said our goodbyes.
That was nice.
To be clear, again I do not condone nor suggest that you should take rides from strangers.
It’s a terrifically terrible idea.
However…
The world of the past few years has us convinced that the world is full of a terrible “them” that wish to do us harm.
We’ve been holed up in our omnipresent phones and screens for what seems like forever and we’ve been, for the benefit of who or what I am not sure, convinced that the world is full of cruel and terrible people.
It is not.
Again, don’t take rides from strangers.
However rest easy in the knowledge that not all strangers are bad people.
###
Several years back my friend and I were in Paris and decided we wanted to go to Vimy. ( We had both just re read The Stonecarvers by Jane Urquhart) . We could find no tour so decided to take a train. We got off the train in a cornfield. An older gentleman approached us and noted that we were two Canadian ladies wanting to see the memorial. BTW it is 17 km out of town. We declined but he convinced us he was the only game in town -pas de buses pas de taxi. So with fear and trembling we 60 something ladies took the ride. Both of us sure our throats would be slit. Turned out to be the most wonderful day . Too long a tale to tell here but it ended with a note from Jane Urquhart . M Du Vlo( not sure of the spelling ) was featured in a CBC documentary about Vimy . Take the ride ( unless of course it is a serial killer offering )
We have forgotten that most of humanity is good at heart - time to do a rethink
#commonsensejournalism