There are good people out there

[Soduku1234]

Please tell us your stories of the good people you've come across. It's easy to forget that most people are good.

I've just had a good example. I was waiting for a bus and a homeless guy was walking up and down the road asking for money. He seemed fine but a shop worker stood at his doorway keeping an eye out and waited until I was on the bus before going back inside. He did it without any words but the eye contact told me he was doing it to keep an eye out for me. No fanfare, just calm presence. I wasn't worried about the homeless guy but it was still nice to know that people will look out for others.

I feel like we need to embolden people to return to that kind of behaviour. It was to me a fundamental British value and behaviour. Then for several decades people were told to never judge others or challenge them or 'shame' them by intervening or challenging poor behaviour.

Sometimes tackling these things can escalate things so I think he did the right thing.

I think it's the old 80/20 principle in operation again. The vast majority of people are "good" but most are pretty quiet about it, i.e. the "shy Brit" phenomenum. You see it when something goes wrong, whether it was the covid lockdowns, someone collapsing on the street, a car accident etc - suddenly, loads of people appear, as if from nowhere, all wanting to help. But in "normal" life, everyone is keeping their head down, avoiding eye contact etc because they're afraid of random weirdos even though the chance of encountering such a person is very low in normal day to day life. Sadly I think you're right about the loss of our "British value and behaviour" over the past few decades. We just seem to be more shy and introverted these days as we're more wary of other people, yet when the initial barrier is broken down, we're mostly helpful/friendly towards others. Such a shame that things have changed so much in the past few decades and even more of a shame that it needs a tragedy/accident/incident for those barriers to be broken down and for people to be friendly and work together.

After the awful things that have happened in the news, come the stories of the people who ran towards not away. Those who sheltered strangers, those who gave first aid. Those stories are sometimes not trumpeted in headlines, but they are usually there if you look.

A good example of "good" people I saw a few weeks ago in our village. I was walking down the main street just after the primary school finished. Lots of parents/grandparents walking their kids away from the school, as normal, but I noticed a very young girl (probably 5 or 6) just stood on her own opposite the library on the main road, looking a bit lost/frightened. No one else was paying any attention, and I didn't know whether to approach her or not. Then I looked towards the village shop and the library next door to it, and there were several people watching out for her, stood in the doorway/window, obviously trying not to be too obvious to freak her out, so I went into the shop, where there were a couple of older men watching, and they both came over to suggest I go and talk to her as they didn't want to (being men), but were watching her anyway to make sure she was OK and would have stepped in if she seemed to get distressed or if someone approached her who she didn't seem to recognise. It's a shame that people are now wary of taking action in that kind of scenario for fear of being branded something/someone nasty! The woman behind the counter was also watching, but she kept having to break off to serve people. Just as I was about to approach her, a car came and she got straight into it, so it was OK in the end.

We had one this week. We were on our way to an RHS Christmas event with the kids and my partner didn't feel right whilst driving. He gets depressed sometimes and work stress got on top of him, he looked really unwell when he pulled over and burst into tears and said he couldn't drive safely right now. I think it may have been an anxiety attack. I don't drive so we left the car parked, missed the event and came home via public transport with our young slightly confused kids. I messaged the event and asked if there might be any chance of using our tickets another day explaining what had happened. The lady who picked up the email was so kind she refunded our tickets and has comped us entry to go this evening. I was so touched I actually cried. The work stress (which I hadn't mentioned in my email) is partly that my husbands contract comes to an end in two weeks time and he hasn't lined up further work yet. We couldn't have afforded to pay twice. It was such an incredibly kind thing to do and once we are more secure again financially we are going to make sure to repay the charities kindness.

I use the Tube every day for work and almost invariably - 99 out of a hundred times - folk offer to help people with buggies down the stairs. They do it without being asked, without any fanfare, just a "Do you need a hand?". It gladdens my heart each time.

My mum got mugged and went into John Lewis to sit down and work out how to get home. One of the staff got her a cuppa and gave her £10 of her own money to get home. (Yes, she got paid back.)

I was walking to the tube on a very quiet street and two roadmen made a beeline for me. Just before they got to me, a man walking behind them shouted "Are you ok?" and the roadmen peeled off.

@Ketzele sorry about your mum that's awful

I'm glad the chap shouted out to help you.

I agree about people helping on the tube. In general, I think how helpful people are can often depend on where you live. Certain my old bit of London turned into a very low trust area shall we say - so the guy who helped you would've been nervous to shout out, in my old area he'd have to consider that he was making himself a target.

Train journey from hell. DH and I waiting on a packed platform. Train came in and I could get on but he was behind me with suitcases. A young couple told DH to get on ahead of them in case we got separated. Incredibly kind of them and they also got on..
There were at least 12 of us packed into the vestibule, standing for over an hour. Everyone was kind and helpful. The young man nearest the luggage rack took luggage from other passengers and put it on the rack so we all had a little more space.

My town is decorated for Christmas entirely by volunteers. All the money for the lights and decorations is raised by groups within the town arranging events throughout the year and all the decorations are put up by hundreds of people who give up their time over one weekend. 0

Some lovely stories

I think most people I meet are good people, in general.