Unknown Samaritans

We made the big haul from Phoenix to Bellevue, WA last week. Lots of friends helped us load the truck over the weekend and we hit the road early on Monday morning. In Nevada it got messy ... very heavy rain, sleet, hail, and an unexpected detour around Hoover Dam. Seems Homeland Security no longer allows rental trucks to cross over major dams. I get it, but it is frustrating to think that in some ways the terrorists are winning.



Around Henderson, NV it got really messy - I mean the kind of rain/fog/hail that makes you think "I need to pull off the road NOW!!" They literally were shutting the road down behind us. But as we made a curve and hooked up with another highway, I saw a biker moving on down the road. The guy was an excellent rider with lots of guts and confidence - I had already seen two or three bikes pulled off under overpasses, and I must admit if it had been me on the road I would have been with them.



But like I said, this guy was an excellent rider who kept a steady speed, a very straight line, and didn't flinch even when idiots went roaring past him on the left side, kicking up buckets of water as they passed. Now, when riding in the rain and on a slick road the biggest danger is not falling, for if you run the bike at a reasonable speed and are dressed in good gear you are pretty much guaranteed that if you do go down there will be more damage to your pride than your body. It's the 27 cars lined up behind you whose drivers are not paying attention and run over you that causes the real pain! All those "thump-thumps" over your prostrate body can pretty much ruin your day.



So I pulled in behind him since I figured I knew what to look for if he started to lose it and was going at a speed that would allow me to stop and if anybody hit anything, it would be this honking big U-Haul I was driving instead of him. What the heck, I had bought the extra insurance anyway!



So we headed on down the highway, the biker running great lines, straight and true, and never getting rattled by the boneheads roaring past him. I was really impressed but also wondered what he thought of me ... I am assuming he was not a mind-reader and had no idea of who or what I was. All he saw in his rear-view mirror was a big truck with a driving grinning like an idiot. I was grinning because I was so impressed with his riding, but for all he knew I was grinning because I was planning on running him down! He had no idea that I had his back.



And I began to wonder how many times people had protected me without my ever being aware of it. And not just on a bike, but so many times in life. In my profession you are open to a lot of hits, and I wondered how many times parishoners had blocked a personal attack on me. I wondered how many times my mom or my wife or even my kids had covered me without me being aware of what they were doing. I wondered how many strangers had picked up after me, covered up for my inattention or even protected me from my own stupidity. I mean, I am not the only nice guy in the world, so if I would cover this stranger on a bike, how many others must have watched over me?



So there are guardian angels ... and mostly they don't have wings or big messages from God. Mostly they are just normal folks who take a moment to care about others. Wow.