6.18.2009

Should I eat the peaches?

I have been thinking a lot lately about the concept of trust.
I remember a sermon I heard in high school on a passage that I can not seem to find at the moment that talked of not being skeptical but instead being trusting.
How sad that we live in a world where we almost have to be skeptical to avoid getting ripped off or cheated.

I was leaving class this morning and walking to my car which I had strategically parked in the Walgreen's parking lot on the strip to avoid getting ticketed since I refuse to buy a $200 parking pass for the summer. As I was getting into my car I heard a woman's voice say "excuse me" pretty loudly from behind me. I turned around to see a middle aged woman holding a grocery sack.
As she walked over to my car I immediately thought of an email my mom had sent me a few weeks ago about people asking you things when you are getting in your car so they can grab your purse. (just for the record.. I hate those precaution emails... I know I need to be safe but I feel like it's a huge conspiracy of anxious and worry wart-old ladies who type those up)
To be honest, I am not a cautious person by any means... I have a bad habit of running towards danger and ending up in the wrong places at the wrong times....but for some reason my red flags went up today.
The lady reached into her bag and pulled out four perfectly colored peaches and handed them to me (imagine me looking confused, one foot in the car -one on the pavement, dropping my keys and phone on the ground). She explained that she was leaving for Florida and the peaches from her garden would be spoiled when she got home and that she couldn't possibly eat them all. I said thank you and got in and left.

On my way home as I processed what had happened and began asking myself if eating peaches from a stranger was a sketchy idea, I realized something about myself.

I am more skeptical of people who do nice things for me for no reason than of disheveled people, wreaking of alcohol who ask me for money on the streets.

What is wrong with this picture?

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