The Good Samaritan and “The” Valley 

Recently while on a road trip through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia I misplaced my wallet which contained the necessities and ephemera of life gathered over a life spanning more that seventy years – driver’s license, credit and ATM cards, all replaceable but more importantly items that hold sentimental value such as photographs of my eleven grandchildren and a photograph of my bride on one of our car club rallies  before we were married. Although trivial as compared to those who lost it all in the inferno of Southern California I could at least empathize in some small way with their loss.

I suspect my wife thought I was having a senior moment, but I could have sworn I did not carelessly leave my wallet behind at a public location. Quickly thinking (as she always is) she alerted the County Sheriff’s Department and within minutes they were on the scene and assisted with the search to no avail. After they departed, I uttered a few expletives (old Sailor habits are hard to break) and was resigned to spending a beautiful afternoon at home on the phone canceling credit cards and applying for a new driver’s license and other identification required to navigate life in the twentieth century. No exactly what I had planned! 

Upon returning home there was a blinking light on my answering machine and upon retrieving the message the voice of a Good Samaritan indicated he had found my wallet intact. Before he finished what flashed through my head was the episode where my wife’s friend had lost her wallet and the individual who found it (in Northern Virginia no less) was demanding $250 to have it returned to her possession. Well, no such thing, to my delight the finder of my stray wallet, who also happened to be a resident of the Shenandoah Valley returned it promptly and would not take a reward as he stated, “he considered it his duty to return it to its rightfully owner.” Like the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke he could have easily chosen not to get involved.

This small episode taught me two important lessons: 1) Despite the political bickering and animosity that frequently divides us, many still retain a sense of honesty and integrity to do the right thing even though it may be inconvenient or self-serving. 2) Although I am known as a “come here’ in this part of the world both the local law enforcement officer and my Good Samaritan treated me as a “from here,” e.g., a native of the Shenandoah Valley. 

Quite frankly I could not imagine this same scenario transpiring in Northern Virginia of the District of Columbia and that is why I opted almost twenty years ago to move to a location where honesty and service above self prevails and the local men and women in law enforcement are respected and willing to take the time out of their busy schedule to assist a septuagenarian in distress over a trivial matter. Life is good and my faith in humanity has been restored.