A Samaritan who was traveling that way came upon the (injured) man, and when he saw him, his heart was filled with pity.
Luke 10
From a kid's point of view her enlightenment was costly. When I think, as an adult, which of my childhood friends I would most like to see as an adult, I often think of Mike Garner, my best early childhood friend with whom I did cub scouts, boy scouts, sand lot baseball, school, clubs, overnights. Sometimes I also wonder whatever happened to my icon, Margaret, but as a matter of fact I did see her again on a trip when I was in junior high school. She hadn't aged well. Ha! But I think more than either of them I'd like to find out what has become of Angie Tidwell.
Angie was one of the most popular girls in my fifth grade class. She was pretty and smart and nice. Popular until she be-friended the sixth grade scapegoat, Janet. Janet was quite unattractive, (a more serious shortcoming than if she had been an athletic boy, like Philip, who became our star baseball player) not a particularly good student, and poor so that she had to wear the same clothes, couldn't have her teeth fixed, and was clearly insecure personally and socially. Because of the cruel under-belly of childhood, to befriend Janet would have also stigmatized the child so bold.
Later, in junior high I saw a Death Valley Days television show in which a young man married such an unattractive woman for a large sum of money. Only after the wedding he found out it was shares in a worthless gold mine instead of dollars he'd won. It didn't matter though, because he found he loved this person anyway. Then the mine struck gold and he became fabulously wealthy. Together they went on a honeymoon to Europe and she returned in her finery as a great beauty. I always hoped something like that would happen for Janet.
When the movie Flatliners found Kevin Bacon seeking the forgiveness of the "ugly" child he had mistreated as a child, I could identify. The best that could be said for my attitude towards Janet was that it was benign neglect compared to the overt hos-tility of so many of her classmates.
Angie, who had been very popular, befriended Janet. Her "friends" then shunned Angie like they did Janet. I secretly, but profoundly, admired Angie for her "courage." Once near the end of sixth grade I asked Angie why she had done it. She answered that they had been real friends. She hadn't patronized Janet. Angie said quite frankly that a close friendship with Janet had been more worthwhile to her than super-ficial friendships with the rest of us. Who could argue with that? Exemplary. Angela Tidwell, called Tittywell behind her back, was, ironically, admired by all of us who shunned her and Janet. Angie, the best kid I ever knew.