Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of people got to have another experience of this world because you were willing to help
me.”
Dwight tried not to smile, “All because of one tank of gas?”
We began to laugh, but I knew that he understood as well as I did that the whole world
can
be changed by one tank of gas.
Dwight sat back down, and I could tell that he was beginning to feel like he was part of
this journey, that in some way, he had been with me the whole time. “Hopefully this will
spread,” he offered. “People need to start looking out for one another.”
Spreading was exactly what I had in mind, and it was going to start with the man sitting
right in front of me.
I told Dwight about all the people I had met and the gifts given—from the first gift to
the most recent one. And then, I got to Dwight.
“There are some people who have kindness in their hearts and some people who don't,”
I told him. “And that's okay. But you strike me as someone who does, someone who has so
much goodness.”
“I try,” he laughed nervously. “I try to keep that goodness. But it's really rough some-
times to keep your head above water.”
I knew what he meant. Because though a river of kindness might flow between us,
sometimes it's hard to swim in the undertow. We get sucked down by circumstance or by
the consequences of our demons, and we forget that it's only by lifting out our hand out to
another that we are saved.
Finally, I asked Dwight the one thing I had wondered since we first met, “Why did you
help me?”
He shrugged his shoulders, “Because you needed help.”
Because you needed help.
I spoke some more about the trip and then reminded him of when he told me that he
hoped to travel one day.
“Yeah, see for me, it's special. Because on one level, personally, it's something that I
enjoy, to go see other cultures, be in other environments. But at the same time, it's profes-
sional because I'm training to be a psychologist, and it's a good way for me to learn what
is different about those cultures.”
“Really? So if you could travel the world, that would be like enrolling in the school of
life.”
