Kindness in Unexpected Places

I got off the train at 50th Street last night and a very smartly dressed women in a flowery red dress walked past me quickly. She was one of those elegant Manhattan women with long legs and fancy clothes. I imagined she was off to a show or a fine restaurant. I see these people all the time in the city and wonder what their lives are like in their doorman buildings with their sophisticated friends. And then the picture I was forming in my mind just went out the window. She spotted a woman (pictured) with a baby carriage facing the two flights of stairs out of the station. "Do you need help?" she asked. The mother gladly accepted the offer and the two trudged up the stairs in front of me, carrying the baby carriage together. Honestly, I wouldn't have even thought to have offered to help. There's something about living in the city so close to other people that makes moments like this the rule rather than the exception. People do care about each other -- even if they're strangers -- because there is a we're-all-in-this-together kind of spirit. One of these days I hope I stop looking at the people around me as things to be observed and more as someone who might need a helping hand. I want to be the thoughtful person who looks out for his fellow New Yorker.