Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Photograph by Brigitte Lacombe.
This is what Blanche Dubois says when she’s about to be carted off to the madhouse; it seems a failed hope, although in A Streetcar Named Desire the doctor who comes to collect her does seem friendly—and he’s a man, which always means hope to poor Blanche. The play ends there and so we have no idea what the outcome is for this sad woman; I doubt if Tennessee Williams wanted to imagine it and so perhaps kindness did carry Blanche at least for a while.
Now is the time for all of us to depend on the kindness of strangers. We have friends, we have family, but in many of the ordinary events of daily life, they are not at hand. Strangers are.
Thursday when I was trundling my shopping cart back to the market, a man stepped forward and took it from me. He didn’t say anything but I hope my fervent “thank you!” expressed my pleasure in his good deed. Of course I’m perfectly capable of rolling a shopping cart back to its station, but that’s not the issue. It’s the willingness to help, offered by a stranger I will probably never see again.
I hope we can all think for a moment of the many forms of kindness we’ve experienced from strangers. That doesn’t seem to come naturally here where according to a survey, the majority of our citizens believe a lost wallet will not be returned although in the majority of cases it will be!
Is this part of the reason we score so low on the happiness index?
This is so true! And people do often step up, especially some that are accused of criminal intent. I lost my wallet once and my phone twice in The Mission in SF, a Latino neighborhood. Returned by Latino folk, all intact.