A good man is not that hard to find

In Flannery O'Connor's famous 1955 short-story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", Sammy Red bemoans the difficulty of finding a good man: “It isn’t a soul in this green world of God’s that you can trust…everything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more.”

Many would agree especially in this individualistic world where greed for riches and power coupled with poverty and unfairness has turned the hearts of men into stones. An accident happens, but the victims are robbed instead of being helped. Friends and relatives borrow from each other without intentions of paying back. We have become like O'Connor's fictitious character, 'The Misfit' who kills an innocent family of six to get back at the world that has wronged him.

I ate an expensive hotel meal without money and was forgiven

Yet random acts of kindness still happen; pushing back the darkness of the world and inspiring men to do better. That good apple in the basket of rotten others continues to scatter its good seeds into the soil for posterity’s sake. That is why darkness roars and foams but fails to obliterate a ray of light.

That is what I discovered early this week after I ate a hotel meal only to discover I had no money on me! I remembered all the stories of patrons forced to do embarrassing chores after enjoying services beyond their means, and prepared for the worst. Would my phone get confiscated or would I be grabbed by the belt and dragged to a jail cell?

When the waitress brought my bill, I told her there was a little problem: "I’ve just discovered I don't have money on me; I'm not sure I left my wallet home or just lost it."

 Silence and discomfort followed as she probed me with her eyes, her expressive face saying things that only a gifted illustrator’s pencil could capture. After a torturous time returning her gaze, she said, "I believe you. You will bring the money tomorrow."

I left feeling like a man who had been forgiven a huge debt, and realised a good man is actually easy to find. The kindness of the waitress so fired up my faith in others and has inspired me to give a chance to strangers and replicate the goodness that was shown to me.