Just about every time I see someone I stop. I kind of got out of the habit in the last couple of years, moved to a big city and all that, my girlfriend wasn't too stoked on the practice. Then some ♥♥♥♥ happened to me that changed me and I am back to offering rides habitually. If you would indulge me, it is long story and has almost nothing to do with hitch hiking other than happening on a road.
This past year I have had 3 instances of car trouble. A blow out on a freeway, a bunch of blown fuses and an out of gas situation. All of them were while driving other people's cars which, for some reason, makes it worse on an emotional level. It makes it worse on a practical level as well, what with the fact that I carry things like a jack and extra fuses in my car, and know enough not to park, facing downhill, on a steep incline with less than a gallon of fuel.
Anyway, each of these times this ♥♥♥♥ happened I was DISGUSTED with how people would not bother to help me. I spent hours on the side of the freeway waiting, watching roadside assistance vehicles blow past me, for AAA to show. The 4 gas stations I asked for a gas can at told me that they couldn't loan them out "for my safety" but I could buy a really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ 1-gallon one with no cap for $15. It was enough, each time, to make you say ♥♥♥♥ like "this country is going to hell in a handbasket."
But you know who came to my rescue all three times? Immigrants. Mexican immigrants. None of them spoke a lick of the language. But one of those dudes had a profound affect on me.
He was the guy that stopped to help me with a blow out with his whole family of 6 in tow. I was on the side of the road for close to 4 hours. Big jeep, blown rear tire, had a spare but no jack. I had signs in the windows of the car, big signs that said NEED A JACK and offered money. No dice. Right as I am about to give up and just hitch out there a van pulls over and dude bounds out. He sizes the situation up and calls for his youngest daughter who speaks english. He conveys through her that he has a jack but it is too small for the Jeep so we will need to brace it. He produces a saw from the van and cuts a log out of a downed tree on the side of the road. We rolled it over, put his jack on top, and bam, in business. I start taking the wheel off and, if you can believe it, I broke his tire iron. It was one of those collapsible ones and I wasn't careful and I snapped the head I needed clean off. ♥♥♥♥.
No worries, he runs to the van, gives it to his wife and she is gone in a flash, down the road to buy a tire iron. She is back in 15 minutes, we finish the job with a little sweat and cussing (stupid log was starting to give), and I am a very happy man. We are both filthy and sweaty. The wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands in. I tried to put a 20 in the man's hand but he wouldn't take it so I instead gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I thanked them up one side and down the other. I asked the little girl where they lived, thinking maybe I could send them a gift for being so awesome. She says they live in Mexico. They are here so mommy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks. After that they are going to pick cherries then go back home. She asks if I have had lunch and when I told her no she gave me a tamale from their cooler, the best ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tamale I have ever had.
So, to clarify, a family that is undoubtedly poorer than you, me, and just about everyone else on that stretch of road, working on a seasonal basis where time is money, took an hour or two out of their day to help some strange dude on the side of the road when people in tow trucks were just passing me by. Wow...
But we aren't done yet. I thank them again and walk back to my car and open the foil on the tamale cause I am starving at this point and what do I find inside? My ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ $20 bill! I whirl around and run up to the van and the guy rolls his window down. He sees the $20 in my hand and just shaking his head no like he won't take it. All I can think to say is "Por Favor, Por Favor, Por Favor" with my hands out. Dude just smiles, shakes his head and, with what looked like great concentration, tried his hardest to speak to me in English:
"Today you.... tomorrow me."
Rolled up his window, drove away, his daughter waving to me in the rear view. I sat in my car eating the best ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tamale of all time and I just cried. Like a little girl. It has been a rough year and nothing has broke my way. This was so out of left field I just couldn't deal.
In the 5 months since I have changed a couple of tires, given a few rides to gas stations and, once, went 50 miles out of my way to get a girl to an airport. I won't accept money. Every time I tell them the same thing when we are through:
"Today you.... tomorrow me."
pip



"I have no fear of losing my life - if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it." Steve Irwin.


It is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear. Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death.

So, like, Nietzsche talked about, about power. And really thats what all of this stuff is about, right? It’s power. If you’re the monkey with the most bananas, and i mean this is a real example here, some uh, i think its bonobos, im not sure though, but if you’re the monkey and you’ve got all the bananas, thats power, man. But say someone comes along and smashes all your bananas, and i mean really smashes them up, like man you’re not getting those bananas up, its a total mushy mess. Well where’d your power go? And i mean, i mean thats the REALLY COOL part of this, is its like, if you had a blender, you coulda made a smoothie. Hell, you coulda made a banana split if that other monkey didn’t smash them up, but monkeys cant invent that kinda stuff. And this is remarkably similar to a biblical archetype, the mark of cain, now lets say, you know, there’s a monkey from a Nintendo game called uh, called Lanky Kong, and i mean he can stretch his arms really far. Thats the real chaos there, man, i mean the reach, to grasp knowledge, logos as the greeks said, i mean you’d better be able to wrap your head around that man, because thats the root of responsibility.
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I have a favorite cup that I use all the time. One day, I will drop it and it will break. This is the inevitable end for a cup, but I will still be devastated that it broke. I will curse myself for not being more careful as I pick up the pieces. But if I accept now that the cup is already broken, then every moment with it is precious.

Boris Johnson exalts in rodomontade locution. His peripatetic discourse goes from ancient Rome to Chaucarian England to Public Schoolerisms: his lexicon is quite the traveller.

لو كنت من مازن لم تستبح إبلي ----- بنو اللقيطة من ذهل بن شيبانا

إذا لقام بنصري معشر خشن ----- عند الحفيظة إن ذو لوثة لانا