Why it pays off to care

Today I did good.
I had a meeting downtown that I really wanted to postpone until Thursday. But the people I was meeting had told me that that was impossible. It had to be TODAY.
As it got time for me to go I got jumped on my bike. Now, I was running a bit late, so I was working my bicycle down the hill like I was trying out for the Olympics.
Then I passed by a bench on which a man was hunched over, unable to keep his balance.
As I sped pass him I thought of my grandmother. Two years ago, on our way home from shopping, she started to feel ill. So we sat down on a bench and then she passed out. Completely. Luckily I had my cell-phone on me, and I called for an ambulance. She turned out to be ok. It was the heat that got to her. But it could have been her heart.
And with that in mind I slowed down on the hill. Came to a stop. Turned around and drove back up to the bench to ask the man if he needed any help.
He turned out to be a man, forty-something, drunk to the point where he couldn't sit up straight anymore. He declined my offer to help. And so I went on my way again.

But now I was even more late than before. So I had to pull over and call the people I was meeting to let them know that I would be there fifteen minutes past the deadline.
They couldn't work with that, so they asked me to come in on Thursday instead.
See, it does pay off to care.
;-)