People never cease to amaze me. Last night my dad and I were moving some final things from my apartment at about 2am. It was arduous day full of professional commitments and many moving trips. We were both beyond exhausted. The last thing we had to move was a large bed/box spring. We brought the bed down and finagled it into the SUV. Then we went for the box spring. It wouldn’t fit. We thought to put it on the roof, but didn’t have any ropes/cords. My dad thought that he would just hold it.

It was about 15 degrees; he had no gloves and about a 40 min drive to ahead of him — alone. And the box spring’s stability was suspect at best. Then after we just about made peace with the situation, a homeless man with very tattered clothes poked his head into our window.

“You guys look like you’re having some moving trouble” he said. My dad and I kind of looked at each other a bit reticently and said yes.

“Well.” He said. “I bet if you guys look in the alley, you could find something to tie it down.” We looked at each other again. We were even more taciturn and too tired to even entertain the idea as we saw him walk away.

And then a minute later, he turned backed. He came toward us and said: “if you guys just give me two minutes, I but I can find you something good.” So then he disappeared into the alley and started rummaging. A few minutes later, he emerged with a plastic tie, some cable cord, and the belt. And like an intrepid sailor, he started fashioning the belt and the cable tie together. He made an incredible not tied to one side of the roof of the car and then slung it over and tie down the other.

He then said “I will be right back.” He proceeded to cross the street and rummaged in the alley down the way. He came back with a piece of an electrical cord. The fashion this cord and the plastic tie together and repeated the same process as he had done on the front part of the car.

He then dusted off his hands looked at me and my dad, and then said “You know, I used to work in construction I know how terrible it is to have to put something on the roof of your car when you have nothing to hold it down. And then you have to have your hand out of the window driving through the cold. It is an awful experience.” He then paused for a second and added: there are some homeless people out there who are crazy; there are some who want to rob you or worse. But some of us are just normal human beings and we just want to help when we can. I know that if I were stuck on the road and you had the ability to help me, you would.”

And then after receiving our profuse appreciation and the cash in our pockets, he smiled, bowed, and then disappeared into the night.