I know it can be very dangerous. I usually don't stop. The
two times I did it was an extreme circumstance. Once was in college when it was
dangerously cold and I saw an old lady (half my size) walking across a parking
lot alone. It was 17 F and the wind was blowing so seeing her like that scared
me. I roll down my window and ask if she's okay. She's hitchhiking back to
Hydro. I lived in Weatherford Ok at the time, which is about ten minutes from
Hydro. I demanded she get in the car, because I'm convinced she's going to
freeze to death if she doesn't. The whole way back---and there was ice on the
highway, this was dangerous for more reasons than picking up a hitchhiker, she
tells me all about how God tells her who to hitch hike with. By the time we get
to her home, I'm convinced she's completely nuts, but I'm glad she's not going
to freeze to death. For some stupid reason she invites me into her house and
for an even stupider reason (God knows what) I go in. Right there on her
fridge, in her crazy lady hoarder stuff stacked to the ceiling apartment, in
dry erase marker on her calender is "Pray against gay rights". I
almost died. My best friend isn't straight, and at the time, my campus ministry
I was a part of was nothing but gay men and straight women. She had no idea
who'd given her a lift. I drove home that telling God he was hilarious and
being quite grateful she wasn't a serial killer.
Free range crazy lady who writes about baking, dieting, and religion from the perspective of a whacky Episcopalian liberal Okie democrat with an oddly traditional perspective on living.
I always said He has a sense of humor, just based on the fact that He made giraffes. But He often finds ways to make a pointedly funny prod or confirmation using our interactions with others, huh?
ReplyDeleteI take comfort in the idea that I kept that poor little loony from freezing to death that night. I was one of the few people silly enough to be out. I didn't want to stay any longer or I'd have said something to her about that. I found out later that she was notorious for this behavior in Hydro and no one who lived there would pick her up anymore. Hydro, mind you, is about the size of Marshall....
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