Vocal Point: Stranger’s offer of jacket a warm gesture

I ride the city bus. Some rough-looking sorts often ride with me. I usually avoid their looks and do not converse except with short answers that are meant to end the conversation.

Last Thursday, I intended to take the bus to downtown Spokane to meet up with my wife after she got off work. We often gather after work for dinner or to meet with friends for an evening in the inner city. I usually take the bus so my wife and I don’t have to find parking spaces for two cars. This also means that I can ride home from the event with my wife, which facilitates a speedy post-event scolding for my unseemly remarks and inappropriate behavior toward whomever we socialized with at the event. My wife does not believe in waiting until the next day to swat the dog for chewing up her slippers.

Last Thursday was one of the first Spokane sunshine days after this bleak winter. I departed from our home on the four-block trek to the bus stop. I was wearing no coat, only a short-sleeved shirt. After a couple of blocks, I regretted my presumption that sunshine indicated warmth. I was cold and, worse, it was windy.

I got so chilled that I trotted the last blocks in order to take shelter in the three-sided glass transit hut at my bus stop. Although I still felt chilled inside the hut, at least the wind was no longer contributing to my temperature loss.

A young man in his 20s came into the small, glass transit hut. I am an old man in my 60s. The man was wearing a backpack, as young people do. We sat silently in the small transit shelter, much like strangers sharing the confines of a closed elevator.

After some time, the young man, wearing a thick jacket, looked at me and said, “You must be tough, out in this weather with no coat?”

“More stupid than tough,” I responded tersely, aiming to avoid a conversation.

The young man removed his pack and stuck his hand inside to pull out a warmup jacket. He held the jacket out to me, “Here, you can wear this. Give it back when you get on the bus.”

I was stunned. Most of us give unwanted clothing and other items to the local charities, but not many would give an item from their current wardrobe to a stranger for a temporary warmup at a bus stop. I wouldn’t.

The bus pulled up just as the man extended the jacket. I waved off his offer. I was so flummoxed that I could barely utter, “No, thank you.”

That bit of offered kindness beats reading a book full of life affirmations.

He offered to loan his personal jacket to a total stranger, an old man waiting at a bus stop. What was that young man thinking?

I wish to be more like him.