To the editor:
Things haven’t been easy lately. They call us the sandwich generation – with ailing parents, young kids, a spouse, and the pressures of work. I take my life and responsibilities seriously and I work hard to do the right thing and to do my best at all that I do. I have always trusted that others feel similarly accountable. So, when I stepped out of the daycare on a cold, dark Monday night with my seven-year-old daughter, I was stunned to find my bike had disappeared, my main mode of transportation, my sanity.
I have parked my bike in this spot every day for the last five years. I never lock it at the daycare. Perhaps, you think I had it coming, that it was just a matter of time before I got what I deserved for my naivety. Perhaps, you’re right; but I have a friend whose policy of trusting in the universe has rubbed off on me. He believes that you need to have faith in people and that by having faith in people’s inclination to do the right thing, they inevitably do. So I stopped locking it in certain situations. This time, I had even gone so far as to leave my pannier on the side, complete with all my possessions except my cell phone. I called my husband and then the police. I made my report and then told everyone who would listen. This is when the magic started.
Friends and neighbours immediately moved into action – walking the school grounds, travelling the alleys, on a search for my possessions. I was touched. I emailed work with profuse apologies for the loss of the company laptop and was met with condolences for my loss and a promise to have me set up with a new laptop by 10 a.m. That evening, I made a list of everything that had been in the bag. It would be an expensive lesson. That same night, I received an email from someone who found my business card holder and was mailing it to my office. Tuesday morning, I whipped up a poster and drove around taping signs to lamp posts. Next, I went to Service Canada to replace my driver’s licence and health cards for me and my daughter, followed by a visit to my credit union to replace all of my bank cards. With my ID in tow, I was beginning to feel a bit better.
I emailed my naive friend to warn him that the world was not to be trusted after all. He replied immediately, "Well, if you’ve been doing this for three years, then you were right for 1,000 days and wrong for just one."
He and his wife offered to fix up a bike for me to use. I was floored. Could people really be this nice?
I received multiple emails from people in the community as a response to my posters: "found your water bottle", "posted it to Facebook for you", "put up a message on Craigslist".
Then on Friday, I got the big call,
"Hi Michelle, I have you wallet and some of your other things, give me a call."
A friend’s son had found my wallet and taken it home. She followed up with inquiries about where and when he had found it, and the two of them returned to the scene to recover the rest of the goods. They found my laptop (fully intact), my wallet (also fully intact), my prescription sunglasses, my new woolly hat, my shopping bag and my pannier. That evening, I picked up my daughter at daycare and took her to meet my new-found heroes. We thanked them and wished them all the good karma the world had to offer. We celebrated that evening with my family and my optimistic cyclist friends who came to dinner with my new bike in tow.
Two weeks later, on my way to work on the King streetcar, following a tough morning at the hospital with my mother and her doctors, I got the next email: "Is this your bike?" I laughed out loud.
Unbelievable, a parent from my daughter’s school had found my bike in her backyard that morning. We picked it up that evening. So in a three-week period, almost all of my belongings have been returned. I have changed my locks, replaced my ID, changed all of my passwords (and as a result have locked myself out of my bank account multiple times), but all in all, I cannot believe my luck. To those of you, who passed on the word via social media, or helped me look for my possessions in the dark, thank you. Thank you for caring enough to help out a neighbour.
This is what makes the world go round. This is what holiday magic is. This is why we have an entire season dedicated to remembering that kindness matters. Thank you everyone. Your kindness matters.
In this world where independence is valued above all else, I ask you, are we missing something? Is it OK to feel indebted to someone? Is it more than OK? Does it make us better people for it? Does it not remind us of what matters, more than the receipt of a gift that we wanted? It’s the kindness of strangers, of neighbours of the people around us; that reminds us that we are not alone, that others also feel the same way; that others also grapple with the line between trust and naivety. Thank you. As a friend texted upon the receipt of my possessions, "faith in humanity=restored". Thank you to my community. I feel humbled by your generosity. Happy holidays.
Michelle Xuereb
High Park
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