I want you to consider normalising giving people lifts

One of the privileges afforded to me is that I have a car. The ultimate symbol of freedom. I can go where I want, when I want.

Every day, like many of you, I drive past those that need a lift. These aren't hitchhikers in the strict sense of the term, these are people that need to get places, with no other good options.

In each of their hands is a pitiful R10, or R20... A token of their desperation, an acknowledgement of the costs.

A month ago I gave a lift to a 50 year old frail women, nowhere close to any spot where others would usually congregate. She was escaping her abusive husband, to go stay with her son. Her entire being smelt of cheap wine, a smell I can't stand. Yet here she sat, telling me the story. I'm a kind ear for a moment, I stick a R50 in her hands. and I drop her off. I make her commit to going to the police... I know she won't.

This morning I gave a lift to a young man far from home. The job he had here didn't work out quite well, and he needed to get to a Shoprite to buy a bus-ticket back home. He sheepishly tried to give me the R10 he had in his hands, but I told him to keep it. He's going to get a cooldrink with it.

Neither of these people matter to me in the strict sense of it. I will forget them soon.

To them though, I'm a samaritan. Something I want to be, and want to be known for.

If you can, and if you feel safe, and if it makes sense - I implore you to consider giving people lifts. Somewhere along the 90's we decided that it's too dangerous and stupid... but it's not. It's one of the easiest little things you can do, to make someone else's day so much better.

I mean ... If you're heading that direction already, why not?

Edit: The tribe has spoken. I'm a virtue-signalling naive idiot who is going to die very soon. I'll keep everything for posterity.