As I usually do every afternoon, on Wednesday, May 18, I parked my motorcycle at the corner of Trinxant street and Sant Antoni Maria Claret to go train for a while at DIR Maragall. I placed the anti-theft mechanism that hooks to the handlebars, locked it with a key, and opened the rear trunk to grab my sports bag and shoes. A series of actions without any special transcendence if it weren't for the fact that, unlike other afternoons, I left the keys in the motorcycle.
I wasn't aware of it until two hours later when, upon leaving the gym, I started looking for them unsuccessfully in all my pockets. The first thing I thought was that I had forgotten them in the DIR locker, but before turning around and re-entering the changing room, I was certain that, indeed, I had left them in the motorcycle. "You're screwed, Francesc," I thought because, putting myself in the worst-case scenario, I immediately assumed that my motorcycle would have been stolen. Therefore, I headed to the corner where I had parked it, convinced that it had become the scene of a robbery. However, against all odds, the motorcycle was still where I had left it two hours earlier.
The keys, at first glance, seemed to have flown away, but then I realized that there was a small note taped to the motorcycle's handlebars with a brief message that only I – the owner of the motorcycle and, therefore, of the keys – could understand: "Quatre Bar, Trinxant con Sant Antoni Maria Claret". I looked up and, indeed, across the street I saw a bar with that name. I went to the establishment and, without further ado, the owner returned my keys. About the author of that good deed, he could only tell me that he was a man from the neighborhood who often passed by there – by the handwriting, the good handwriting, I assumed he was an older person – and although I would have loved to find him and, at least, invite him to coffee or a beer, I had to be satisfied by asking him to thank him on my behalf. Thanks for not having stolen my motorcycle, of course, but also thanks for not having passed by and left the keys in as most mortals would have done – note that I include myself. So thank you, dear unknown fellow citizen, for having taken the trouble to take the keys to my motorcycle, keep them safe, and write a note that allowed me to recover them.
Moved by that good deed, I got on the motorcycle with the strange feeling of being in debt. Not necessarily with that anonymous person who in all probability had just prevented my motorcycle from being stolen but, in a way, with society in general. I say it sincerely: I hope that soon the opportunity will arise for me to help some stranger in need.Perhaps you think that what I have just told is an isolated and unrepresentative case. Are you sitting down? Well, keep reading: A few days later, user @LMiliu detailed on Twitter that, that morning, his brother-in-law had suffered a heart attack on the Carretera de les Aigües and that a girl who was passing by had given him a cardiac massage until the ambulance arrived and took him to Vall d'Hebron. The stranger had saved his life! @LMiliu made it public through this social network because the family of the saved in extremis wanted to thank the anonymous savior for her good deed. And Twitter worked its magic: the heroine of this story is named Tina Montaner. She is a young woman who, like every day, had gone out to exercise on the Carretera de les Aigües when she came across the situation: a man lying on the ground foaming at the mouth surrounded by four people who seemed totally overwhelmed by the situation. Tina, who had taken a first aid course some time ago, instead of thinking "they'll figure it out" and continuing on her way, decided to intervene and with her good deed saved the life of the heart attack victim. Tina found out that the assisted person had overcome the heart attack precisely through the brother-in-law's tweet.
Examples of kindness like these, surely there are many more than we think. The problem is that they are not explained because unfortunately, kindness generates far fewer clicks than misfortunes and miseries. Perhaps because we are so unaccustomed to selfless good deeds, all our alarms go off when faced with an act of kindness. It's very sad, think about it. We never apply the presumption of goodness. If a stranger offers to help us, we always suspect their behavior. We think that behind every good deed there is a trap, a hidden interest, someone who wants to pull our leg or deceive us. In reality, I believe that thegoodness makes us uncomfortable because it simply makes our selfishness more evident.Perhaps because we are so unaccustomed to selfless good deeds, all our alarms go off when faced with an act of kindness. It's very sad, think about it.
Stefan Zweig, always Zweig, already described it wonderfully many years ago: "Every morning the newspaper slaps us in the face with wars and crimes and massacres, the delusions of politics overwhelm the mind; but of the good deeds that happen in silence, we rarely know anything. And precisely this is what we would need in a time like ours, because every moral work reveals within us, through example, truly valuable forces, and everyone becomes a better person when they honestly know how to admire goodness."
Well, that's it, from our The New Barcelona Post let's admire goodness and become better people.
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