The recent stories of the people impulsively paying off the Christmas-present layaways for others is a comforting reminder that there are and always have been good people in this world. I share words I wrote some years ago on that subject; they seem appropriate for the Christmas season.
GOOD PEOPLE
There ARE good people left;
sometimes I forget that when I watch the evening news.
A good person once drove many miles to return my wallet,
with credit cards, cash and treasured photos still intact.
Good persons offered us their home one bitter winter day
when fire drove us from our own;
they were concerned our babies would not thrive
in a hotel.
A good person stopped her car one gloomy day
and told me I should know my front-yard flower garden
cheered her every time she passed my home.
A good person found a family album
with the name of Moore inside, and she called me
and countless other Moores to try to send the treasure
to its proper home; it wasn't ours but we were grateful.
A good person,
the patient of a doctor I once worked for,
presented me one Christmas with a handmade rug;
its creation represented hours of pain from
his arthritic fingers.
There ARE good people left;
We should not forget that when we watch the evening news.
--Rose Moore, 1993
