"But the greatest of these is charity"

Tonight I read this article in the New York Times...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-China-Tibet.html

and saw this photo (warning: graphic)...

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/03/27/nytfrontpage/20080327POD_4.html

and I found myself nearly in tears...

When I finished work at 10:30 p.m., I drove to Fred Meyer to pick up hand warmers for climbing tomorrow.

As I was leaving the store a teenage daughter and dad approached me and asked if I know my way around Anchorage...

Speaking over each other in rushed, fragmented language they explained they were stranded... drove into Anchorage from Wasilla and forgot the wallet with all the cash, ID, etc. at home.

While I didn't feel confident enough in their story to give them dollar bills, I felt confident enough in them as people to give them a ride to the the place where they supposedly left their car... a nearby hospital.

I also offered them the left overs from the dinner I packed for work... a cliff bar and granola bar, which they devoured in record time.

In the car they told me a little bit about their life... raising dogs outside Wasilla... a homestead on a mountain... the daughter from Kotzebue is home schooled (in so many words her dad explained this meant she simply doesn't go to school)... her name is Laura...

The story wasn't all consistent and when we arrived at the hospital... rather than go to their van... they had me drop them off at the emergency room entrance... they said they needed go inside and make a few calls (even though they had a cell phone and I offered for them to use mine).

Nonetheless, I found the two dollars I always keep buried in my purse... handed it to them... and wished them a good evening. They walked into the emergency room arm in arm.

It seems to me the only way to face these seemingly huge crises in our world is to start with acts of charity... which in its truest sense is love made tangible.