Aaron must decide if picking up a peculiar hitchhiker is worth the risk.
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Story created & performed by: Aaron Calafato
Senior Audio Engineer: Ken Wendt
Additional vocals: Cori Birce
Art: Pete Whitehead
Original Music: thomas j. duke
Transcript
S4 E26: The Good Samaritan
Aaron Calafato:
We backed out of the driveway really fast. My wife, Cori, was in the passenger seat, and I was driving. In fact, I almost hit a stray cat that was walking across the street, but we were running late. Didn't hit the cat, ended up getting to the light, and I took a left on our usual route. And as I was making the turn, I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw what appeared to be a peculiar hitchhiker.
And the only question is, would I pull over and pick him up? I'm going to tell you what happens, and of course, share a very interesting twist to the story right after the music.
Cori Birce:
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. This is season 4.
Aaron Calafato:
Two major things have happened to me during my 40th year on this planet. I started eating Werther's again for the first time in 20 years, and I started going to church. These are things that just happen. And it's been great. But that's what Cori and I were running late to, and that's how I almost hit that cat. That's why we were rushing. I mean, even if the service starts, right? You gotta at least start going maybe 2 or 3 months. Two or three months of showing up on time, then you get a pass for being late. But these are just my neurotic rules. It doesn't mean anything. Anyways, I'm taking this hard left and I noticed a hitchhiker. And all of this is happening in milliseconds, by the way, because I'm trying to process everything. I just catch it out of the corner of my eye, but there were a few things that were unmistakable that led me to believe that it was a hitchhiker. Number one, the thumb was unmistakable.
I haven't seen a hitchhiker, maybe it's just me, in like 10 years, maybe 20. I've seen people walking down the highway. I've seen people walking down the street, but I knew it by the thumb. He was thumbing. And I said, that's a hitchhiker in my brain.
So that was the first thing that checked that box. The other thing was I could tell he wasn't in an emergency situation, but he was looking for a lift. It was kind of urgent, but not an emergency. Somewhere in the middle there. But here's the peculiar thing about this.
I think it was my neighbor.
So, I don't know what you would consider a neighbor. For me, if you're on my block, we live in not a traditional cul de sac, but it's a big loop. It's a circle. We call it the circle. There's an inner circle. There's an outer circle. We're on the inner circle. I would consider those folks in my neighborhood, and I would consider the house across the street, next to me on my left, next to me on my right, and behind me, maybe a couple houses down from there, those are my neighbors. But this guy, I think he lives in a housing development just down the road.
Now that I think about it, I'm familiar with this guy. In the warm months, I probably see him once a week. Just see him in his yard. And he keeps his lawn, garden, house, everything immaculate, takes pride in his home. I think he's in his eighties. That's what my eyes are telling me, but he's active. And I think he's a veteran because he's got a hat on. I think it's Vietnam, but I'm pretty sure he's a veteran. Yeah. So I passed up my neighbor who's in his eighties and a veteran, and I just blew past him in my car.
And all I could think was, why is this guy down the road from his house? Why is this guy hitchhiking? And does he really need help? But here let me give you the excuses. This happened very fast.
I was also confused with the fact that where he was on the road, he was about 200 yards from where I'm used to seeing him. See, I'm used to seeing him at his house. That's the framework I have in my brain. That's the template I have built. Next thing I know, I'm turning a hard left to get to church because the clock is ticking.
And here's this guy, 200 yards down the road, I had to put 2 and 2 together. By the time I did all of that and did all that mental ninjitsu, I was already a hundred yards down the road. And Cori says to me, maybe we should turn around. And I'm still driving about 35, 40 miles per hour. We're getting further down the road.
I see him in the rearview. And I go, I think we've passed the point of no return. She goes, you could stop. I said, I think someone will stop. I think we're okay.
I think he was okay. Didn't seem like it was terrible. It was silent the rest of the drive. And when we pulled into the church parking lot and got out of the car, something must have been weighing on me because I blurted out to Cori, you know, it's dangerous to pick up hitchhikers. I mean, anything could happen.
They could kill you. And she goes, I think he was pretty harmless. I mean, he's our neighbor. I said, he's not our neighbor. I said, he lives in the neighborhood next to us.
But I don't really know the guy just because I see him every once in a while. I don't know him. That's a variable. That's dangerous. That's a risk.
If we let him in the car, we could be liable. What if his son is like, why did you kidnap my dad and they sue us? She goes, let's just go to church. I said, okay. So we go in, we're waving, we're shaking hands.
I almost forget it until I sit down in the pew as the service starts. The organ starts playing. I'm thumbing through the bulletin, and I'm looking for the title of the sermon. I'm there because of the sermon. I love a good story as you can tell.
And that's one of the reasons why Cori and I found this church and kept coming back was because this young reverend, Reverend Luke, gives an amazing sermon. And I finally find the title and I blink twice and I'm thinking, am I seeing things? Because the title of the sermon we were about to listen to was The Good Samaritan. I'm like, are you kidding me? Now, most people in our culture outside any religious construct know the Good Samaritan.
I mean, this is a parable told by Jesus, and it's about just being a good neighbor. Showing love and compassion to your neighbors along the winding road of life. And here I am after what I did, my eyes are wide. Cori's looking at me. Our eyes meet, and I lean over to her and I say, we're going to hell.
And she leans back over to me and she goes, no, you're going to hell. We had a laugh, but honestly, deep down, I wasn't laughing. I didn't tell Cori this, but this was kind of a moment for me. Funny, ironic, but a moment of reflection. And of course, Reverend Luke gives this amazing sermon.
Really complicated about the parable. And towards the end of his sermon, he repeats what Jesus asks at the end of the parable. Who was the neighbor to the man? And who was a neighbor to the man. I realized in that moment, definitely not me.
I was trying to find all kinds of ways to talk myself out of the fact that this guy was even my neighbor. And then played the security card, the fear card. What if? Gotta keep my family safe, my wife safe. And that's great.
That's smart. I mean, I have a good sense of those things. And if I'm really being honest, if I knew he was really dangerous, no way. If I felt suspicious, no way. I'm not advocating picking up dangerous hitchhikers.
But if I'm being honest with myself, even if I wanted to play it safe, what I could've done is just pull up next to the curb, roll down the window at a safe distance, and said something like, hey buddy, or hey, neighbor. Do you need any help? Now, what would have happened? What would be the ending to that story? I don't know.
I didn't choose to go down that road this time. But I do know whatever would have happened, it would definitely be worth being 15 minutes late to church.
Cori Birce:
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Our senior audio engineer is Ken Wendt. Our resident artist is Pete Whitehead. Original music by TJ Duke. If you or your company needs help starting a podcast, Aaron and Ken's company, Valley View, does just that.
Reach out to them at valleyview.fm. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts, and I'm Cori Birce. Make sure to tune in next week for another story.
