Be Kind

It's been just over a week since the accident, and I've been thinking about my response to the surfer who hit me. I wasn't angry then, but I am a little angry now. On the beach, when Canadian Amanda Portinari ran up to apologize, my better angel took control and I reacted with kindness and empathy. She'd hurt me, but I didn't hurt her back. I treated her the way I would have wanted to be treated, were our situations reversed. She made a mistake, she was careless, but she didn't intentionally run her surfboard into me. 

Can you imagine what the world would be like if more people responded with empathy instead of anger?

Unfortunately, Amanda has not reciprocated. Had I been in her flip-flops, I would have owned the results of my carelessness in the water and helped her on land. While health care is free in El Salvador, it very much isn't in the U.S. My cut became infected, delaying removal of the stitches and landing me on a course of stronger antibiotics. Amanda hasn't responded to my messages yet, but I hope she will stop listening to her bad angel and step up to cover my expenses, at the very least. It's the right thing to do.