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BROTHER AND
SISTER
CHAPTER THREE:
A SIMPLE
ACT OF KINDNESS
Written by
Rick Archer
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Rick Archer's Note:
We will return
to the story of Maria Ballantyne in the next chapter. George Mitchell
will appear in due time.
Before moving on, I would like to add closure to my personal
story.
My
parking lot encounter with Mrs. Ballantyne took place in late
March 1968. Curiously enough, I did not speak to her again
during the final two months of the school year.
It was my own fault. I had all sorts of questions to ask
her, but I was too shy to actually track her down. Instead
I assumed our paths would automatically cross in the hallway and give me an
excuse to begin a conversation. By the time I realized I
would have to take matters into my own hands, she was nowhere to
be seen.
Why did I wish to speak to Maria Ballantyne?
I wanted to ask her if she had felt the same mystical overtones as I
did. Why was she there that day? What made her decide to
take care of me? Did she believe in God? Did she believe in
Fate? Did she believe in Divine Intervention?
Mrs. Ballantyne's disappearance
drove me a little crazy
because all my questions went unanswered.
In
Hindsight, I wonder if we were kept apart for a Cosmic
Purpose. Mrs. Ballantyne was the only person I would have trusted
enough to seek advice regarding
the mystical possibilities of our chance meeting. Instead her absence forced me to
evaluate what had taken place all by myself.
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Maybe that was the
point all along.
Left to my own
thoughts, I don't have the words to explain how unsettled I was.
It wasn't just the shock of Maria Ballantyne appearing out
of thin air. Don't forget the boy who caught me cheating in a highly
improbable way. Faced with two startling back-to-back coincidences, my
previous
view of Reality had been assaulted in a way best described
as an asteroid striking earth. As we shall see, the Universe
was not done rearranging my mind. There were more unsettling surprises
awaiting me.
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In mid-April I was handed an
unexpected scholarship to Johns Hopkins University by a wealthy Houston oilman
named Ralph O'Connor.
There was a mystery regarding my
scholarship to Johns Hopkins that took
me 40 years to solve. What did I
miss? The real reason Mr. Salls
insisted I apply to Hopkins. Upon my discovery
of the truth 40 years later, I
was bewildered to understand why it took
me so long to see something that in
Hindsight seemed painfully
obvious.
As
we recall, in September 1968 I was furious
at Mr. Salls for making me apply to Johns Hopkins University
against my will.
For the life of me, I could not understand why this school
was so darn important to him. Mr. Salls knew his
sales pitch had gone poorly. What did he expect?
Due to my underdog status at St. John's, I was about to
graduate without a single date in four years of high school.
The moment I heard Hopkins was a men's school only, I looked
at Mr. Salls like he was crazy. Plus I had my heart
set on Georgetown. Exasperated, Mr. Salls more or
less TOLD ME to apply anyway, asking me to do it as
a personal favor to him. Since I had tremendous
respect for this man, I promised to do as he wished.
Fast-forward seven
months. Ralph O'Connor, acting as area representative
for Johns Hopkins, invited me to his home. After a 20-minute sales pitch, Mr.
O'Connor asked me
to explain my financial situation. After offering him
a five minute explanation about my father, the grocery store
job, and my difficult home situation, he said he would be in
touch. One week later a letter arrived in the mail.
I had been given a full 4-year
scholarship to college worth $16,000 ($150,000 adjusted for
inflation 2025)
Let me ask my Readers a
question. How many of you would hand a $150,000 to an
unknown teenager based on a 5-minute sob
story? Not very likely. However, for some
strange reason, I never realized just how
strange this was. Neither parent was
contacted. Neither parent was expected
to fill out financial forms. The man
just took my word for it that I was poor.
He waved his magic wand and
suddenly my college problems were solved.
A plot twist like this only happens in the movies, right?
At
the time I gave complete credit to my 5-minute explanation. Yes,
I did remember my September conversation with Mr. Salls.
And now I was very glad I had taken his advice. But
what I
overlooked was
Mr. Salls' personal involvement. No doubt he had told Mr. O'Connor
the same sad story ahead of time. All I did was
confirm it. Not once did I suspect Mr.
Salls was involved in my good fortune. I realize it is
difficult for the Reader to accept such an incredible degree
of ignorance and naivete, but it is the truth.
Since I failed to
notice the strange events
regarding my college scholarship, I forgot about it.
Fast-forward 41 years to 2009. My long-time friend
Maria Ballantyne and I were
sitting on a couch at my dance studio. She had just
confided that she and 'Charlie' Salls
were close friends. Then she added that 'Charlie' had
personally arranged my scholarship behind my back. I was stunned.
Although I had often seen
them together at St. John's, I had no idea Mr. Salls
were friends outside of the school.
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We had a very interesting
conversation that night. I told her
the story of how the Dean of Upper
School had told me I was a disgrace to the
school due to my continued disobedience of the
rules. I added that Mr. Murphy
threatened to revoke my scholarship if
it had been left up to him. Mrs.
Ballantyne laughed out loud.
"You have
described Jim Murphy
to perfection! That is exactly what he would have said
to a rebellious kid like you.
He takes great pride in being a
disciplinarian. Different kids require different
approaches. My own children were
tough enough to take a good chewing out,
but Charlie Salls knew you better than
you realized. My guess is he noted
how fragile you were. Charlie was
well aware that Murphy thought badly of you, but he also
listened to Ed Curran who saw your good
side. Plus Charlie had observed
you in his German class for three years.
I think you reminded Charlie
of his own
difficult childhood. Knowing how
others had helped him when he was young,
I am certain he decided you were
worth taking a chance on."
I nodded.
"That makes sense.
But it upsets me so much that I
never had the chance to thank him for
believing in me. How on earth
could I miss what was going on behind my
back? Based on what you
have told me tonight, for the first time I realize Mr. Salls arranged
my scholarship. However I was so stupid I never gave him a
bit of credit."
"Rick, listen
to me.
From where I
sit, you were the victim of a very
unusual sequence of circumstances. Given your
inexperience with how things worked regarding college
finances, the pressure you were under led to your
misconception about Charlie Salls. All I can say is
thank goodness there were people
like him
who were willing to help. Thanks to your
Headmaster, you were
given a fighting chance
to make your mark in
the world. I
am proud of you and I know
Charlie would have been as well."
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According to Mrs. Ballantyne, Mr. Salls had
a standing agreement with Ralph O'Connor to
send one student per year on scholarship to
Hopkins, a pipeline of sorts.
Do I have proof?
No, but I have circumstantial evidence.
One thing I learned from Mrs. Ballantyne is
that I was not the only scholarship student
at St. John's. The identity of
scholarship students was a well-kept secret,
but I met
two of them at Hopkins. Doug was a
1966 SJS graduate, Charles was a 1967 SJS graduate. Given what I
learned about Doug and Charles, they were
former SJS scholarship
recipients. Now, like me, they were here at Hopkins courtesy of
Ralph O'Connor.
I believe each year Mr. Salls
would recommend a student. If the student was needy, Mr. O'Connor
would turn around and make sure Hopkins would grant a scholarship. So who would their candidate be for 1968?
According to Mrs. Ballantyne, Mr. Salls
was well aware of my precarious financial situation. I assume he picked up
the phone and called his good friend.
"Listen, Ralph, I have a
very good student who is perfect for your school. This young
man has been
with us for nine years and I know him well. He has good grades, good
SAT scores, and studies hard. I am positive he can handle the academics at
Hopkins.
In addition, this boy
works his tail off. I have information from Ed Curran, one of
our teachers here, that this young man is really worried about
college finances. In fact, he has been working a grocery job after school
for the past two and a half years due to trouble at home. In all my
time
at St. John's, I have never heard of a student going to these
lengths.
Confidentially, this boy has the most screwed up parents of any
student we have ever had at this school. There is no way this
boy can afford to go to your school without a scholarship. Do you think you can
help him?"
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After my conversation with Maria
Ballantyne, I went home and thought back to
my high school crisis. Although we did
not discuss it, Mrs. Ballantyne had given me
the clue I needed to clear up two great
mysteries.
Why
did Mr. Salls give the Jones Scholarship to
Katina instead of me? Because he was
saving a much larger scholarship for me.
Why
did Mr. Salls look the other way when I
cheated? Because if a cheating charge
went on my record, Johns Hopkins might very
well have chosen to cancel my scholarship.
Even though my mistake was 40 years in the
past, I turned red with shame like it was
yesterday.
In
Hindsight, the connection between my awkward
September meeting with Mr. Salls and my
pleasant meeting with Mr. O'Connor in April
was unmistakable. Yes, there was a
7-month gap, but I should have been able to
connect the dots. How did I miss this?
Shocked to see Mr.
Salls rudely ignore my stated wish to attend
Georgetown, I
was angry and bewildered by his snub.
Furthermore,
I could not fathom
why an unknown school called 'Johns Hopkins'
was so important. Unable to tell me
his real reason, Mr. Salls had fits trying
to convince me to apply to Hopkins.
Good grief, he had to practically beg me to
cooperate. Given that I was totally
opposed to going anywhere but Georgetown, I
was bitter at Mr. Salls for making me waste
hard-earned grocery store money.
Besides, I thought Mr. Salls was still angry
at me for cheating. As a result, not once did I connect the September conversation
to my good fortune in April.
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How could I have been so blind?
The Realistic
explanation is that I was a deeply confused
young man with no one I trusted enough
to ask questions.
In addition, I had a Supernatural explanation.
I believed that I was
deliberately blinded by the Universe to the
truth by the Force of Fate.
I have a
pet theory I refer to as 'Cosmic
Blindness'.
We are all familiar with the phrase 'to
err is human'. Although I make my
fair share of
mistakes, three times in my life I have made a mistake that felt very
uncharacteristic. A good example would
be my decision to cheat on the German test.
Everyone thinks the concept of Divine
Intervention is wonderful. On the
other hand, has it ever occurred to anyone
that perhaps God occasionally leads us in
the opposite direction? Let's say God wishes
to teach us a lesson. By temporarily suspending our better judgment,
we are at risk of making a colossal mistake.
There is stupidity and then there is STUPIDITY
in capital letters. I am not
a stupid person. And I am careful by
nature. But there have been three times when
I made a serious mistake that in hindsight made absolutely
no sense. Witness the German test
decision to cheat. I believe there will be
times when God deliberately suspends our
common sense to allow such a mistake to occur.
As it turns out, I know someone who agrees with me.
You may have heard of her.
"Talent and intelligence will not
inoculate anyone against the caprice of
the Fates. Humans have a curious
knack for choosing precisely the things
that are worst for them."
-- J.K. Rowling, author.
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Here is what I think
Ms. Rowling means by that. I believe people can be made to see things
in a distorted way if that is what their Fate calls
for. Unfortunately,
all I can offer as proof is my personal
experience.
It was embarrassing to realize I
labored my entire Senior year under a
major cloud of confusion.
I could have avoided the worst
year of my life were it not for my giant
Blind Spot regarding the September
conversation. I am completely
serious. Given Mr. Salls'
outrageous behavior, once I was handed the
scholarship, what kept me from guessing his
role in the matter? Well, duh.
You can't give a kid a scholarship unless he
applies ahead of time.
If I had known that Mr. Salls had arranged a college
scholarship for me,
Senior Year would have been a piece of
cake. Unfortunately, due to my
ignorance, Senior Year turned into a crisis. So I asked
myself a question. What would be
the Cosmic purpose of blinding me to the truth?
The answer came quickly: Learning
through Suffering. There are those who
say more spiritual learning is accomplished in one
year of suffering than ten years of ease.
I believe Senior Year was meant to be my
Darkest Day. Perhaps I was forced
to endure an endless series of hardships
as a way to prepare me for my eventual
mission in life. This is all
speculation of course. That said,
if it is true my Suffering had a
purpose, then the easiest way to
accomplish it would be to infect me with
a serious case of Cosmic Blindness.
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"A coincidence is a
small miracle in which God chooses to
remain anonymous."
-- attributed to several
sources
I do not know where this
quote originated, but I have always been
fond of it. The quote suggests what we
perceive as chance or coincidence might
actually be a case of divine intervention.
I was never quite the same after Mrs.
Ballantyne's timely parking lot
intervention. Like most people, up to
this point I had always ignored
coincidences. However, the Parking Lot
incident was not just one coincidence.
I identified 8 coincidences in all. To
me it seemed like Mrs. Ballantyne had been
guided to my side by a Higher Power.
 There was no rational way to explain why the
solitary person I considered to be
the finest mother on the planet should emerge out of thin air
at such a critical time.
Even if Mrs. Ballantyne was
here just by accident, how do I explain why this busy woman
decided to go far out
of her way to
place a lonely, miserable kid she had never met under her wing?
There was no earthly reason why the person I held
at least partially responsible
for the loss of my Jones Scholarship should emerge out of thin air
for questioning... except here she was.
What about Katina? She was the only person of
interest to me in the entire Senior class, so it was another coincidence that
Katina of all people was involved in my
crisis.
Mrs. Ballantyne had no business being
in this grocery store before. It was nowhere near her
home. So what brought her here?
What
about the Doppelganger
issue? It seemed very strange that
the most important woman and the least
important student at St. John's turned
out to have
virtually identical childhoods.
How was it possible that
a woman would share the intimate story
of her difficult past upon first meeting? Doesn't it
seem strange that Mrs. Ballantyne would share the secret
of the gangster who paid her way to college?
How was it possible for Mrs. Ballantyne to go nine years
without noticing me, then 'adopt' me the moment
we meet?
I chose Maria Ballantyne as my fantasy
'foster' mother back in the 4th
Grade. I defined a foster mother as a
woman who offers guidance, love, and support
to a child who has experienced trauma and
instability. For brevity's sake, I
will spare the Reader the full extent of my
mother's problems. Just take my word
for it that she made things really tough for me.
Consequently every time I saw Mrs.
Ballantyne, my heart ached to have a mother
like her. What I wouldn't give to have a mother who believed in
me.
Some might dismiss me
as a 'Creepy Loser Kid'. I
don't think that is fair. I never once
bothered Mrs. Ballantyne. All I did
was study her from afar and indulge in
harmless hero worship. That said, I
had always wanted to meet her. I
wanted to know if my admiration was
justified. However, that never
happened... but it should have. St. John's was not a large
school. Teachers, students, parents and guests
all used the same limited number of hallways. Given that she
had seven children at the school, Mrs.
Ballantyne practically lived there. By
my
estimate I passed Mrs. Ballantyne in the
hallway roughly 1,000 times over a nine year
period. Every time I would glance at
her, but she never glanced back. I was
invisible. I did not exist. And
yet the one time I needed her help more than
at any other time in my life, Mrs.
Ballantyne appeared out of thin air.
How
crazy is that?
Even crazier, our
unscheduled meeting took place at a remote location.
When she walked through the door at the grocery store, I
immediately went on some sort of Supernatural
alert.
This woman has no business being here!
Mrs.
Ballantyne's
unexplained appearance was shocking enough, but things got
far stranger when she suddenly showed a serious interest in me. There were so many
aspects that felt out of the Ordinary,
I became incredibly spooked by the surrealistic quality of the moment.
One thing about
college is that it gives you time to think.
During my Freshman year at Hopkins I could not get Mrs. Ballantyne out of my
mind.
Like a Guardian Angel, the woman I
considered the finest mother in the school
had appeared out of nowhere to rescue me
from my downward spiral. Mrs.
Ballantyne gave me the will to carry on.
Her visit was so
remarkable that I came to see this highly improbable
coincidence as a Miracle. As a result, for the first
time in my life I began to think seriously
about God. In my spare time I
began reading books on mysticism. In
particular, I focused on things said by
Swiss psychiatrist Carl
Jung and humorist Mark Twain. Both men made a
strong case that special Coincidences should
be taken as clues to the existence of God.
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Synchronicity
Dr. Jung pointed
out that most coincidences can be easily dismissed as
meaningless. However, some coincidences are very
important. Jung referred to 'meaningful coincidences' as
'Synchronicities'.
Dr. Carl Jung:
"The problem of
Synchronicity has puzzled me for a long time, ever since my
middle twenties when I was investigating the phenomena of the
collective unconscious. I kept on coming across
connections which I simply could not explain as chance groupings. What I found were 'coincidences'
which were connected so meaningfully that their chance
concurrence would represent a degree of improbability that would
have to be expressed by an astronomical figure."
"Synchronicity is
the coming together of inner and outer events in a way
that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is
meaningful to the observer. Synchronicity
is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to
see.
As a psychiatrist I
have often come up against the unusual phenomena in
question and could convince myself how much these inner
experiences can mean to my patients. In most cases
they were events people do not talk about for fear of
exposing themselves to thoughtless ridicule.
I was
amazed to see how many people have had experiences of
this kind and how carefully the secret is guarded.
So, my interest in Coincidence has a human element as
well as a scientific foundation."
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Dr. Jung believed if we knew
the truth about how perfectly the Universe was constructed, we would
realize no one but God could possibly organize the phenomena of our
world in such a profound way. Nothing is happenstance in
Jung’s world. Jung claimed that
certain coincidences are very important, but most people don't realize
their significance. Synchronicities are subtle, so you have to
pay attention. Perhaps you will receive a thought
that guides you in an unexpected, quite puzzling
direction that results in a surprise meeting with a
friend. For example, Mrs. Ballantyne could very
easily have been driving home when she remembered she
needed groceries. By chance she notices a grocery
store on her left, so she turns in. To her
surprise, the young man who takes her groceries to the
car turns out to be from St. John's. Jung went on
to say that most people are curious when taking an
illogical direction yields a surprising result.
However, they typically dismiss the gentle nudge as
unimportant. According to Jung, if people would keep better
track of these mysterious events, they would begin to see their world in a
much different way. For this reason, Carl Jung made a suggestion. If we
could somehow keep track of all these seemingly random coincidences, we
might just see a pattern known as 'Fate' emerge.
With that, I decided to take his advice.
I decided to keep careful track of every
coincidence and event that felt
improbable to me, events that felt
contrived. During my
sophomore year of college I
sat down and compiled a List of all the curious things that had happened
to me so far. As one can guess,
I added quite a few
entries from my difficult Senior year of
high school.
My initial list in
1970 contained 26 events. And where does my
List stand as of 2025? 120 events.
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A LIST OF COINCIDENCES DURING RICK ARCHER'S SENIOR YEAR CRISIS |
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026 |
Suspicious |
Lucky Break at a
Critical Moment |
1970 |
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Strange Warning at the Hopkins Graduate Reading Room leads Rick to visit
the local Quaker Meeting. An unusual suggestion from a mystic named
Richard leads to Rick's search for the meaning of life. A lecture from Bob
Hieronimus supplies further incentive. A book written by Carl Jung
recommends keeping
a list of coincidences. With patience, the List will reveal a
pattern that suggests the existence of Fate. |
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022 |
Serious |
Lucky Break
Cosmic Blindness
Act of Kindness |
1968 |
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Senior year Blind Spot. Rick fails
to realize that Mr. Salls was responsible for his college scholarship despite
several obvious clues. Unaware of what his Headmaster had
coordinated with Ralph O'Connor behind
his back,
Rick would remain blind to Mr. Salls' remarkable
act of kindness for 40 years. |
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021 |
Serious |
Lucky Break
Act of Kindness |
1968 |
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Ralph
O'Connor hands Rick a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins University.
This generous gift demonstrates the power of a Simple Act of
Kindness. A kind gesture on his part gives Rick an enormous break
in life |
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020 |
Ultra Serious |
Coincidence
Lucky Break
Act of Kindness
Messenger |
1968 |
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Mrs. Ballantyne fails to notice Rick at SJS for 9 years only to
magically appear during the most serious crisis of his life. The
ensuing conversation in the grocery store parking lot gives Rick the
hope to carry on.
Deeply unsettled by her unexpected appearance, Rick begins three years
of questioning the nature of Reality |
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019 |
Ultra Serious |
Coincidence
Unlucky Break
Cosmic Blindness
Messenger |
1968 |
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Caught cheating on German test
due to a very improbable coincidence.
The unacceptable loss of common sense led to the development of Rick's
Cosmic Blindness theory |
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018 |
Suspicious |
Unlucky Break |
1968 |
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The failure of Rick's father to honor his long-standing Pledge to help
pay for college dramatically increases Rick's fear that his college
dream is out of reach |
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017 |
Suspicious |
Cosmic Blindness |
1967 |
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Rick is bewildered as to the real reason why Mr. Salls ordered him to
apply to Johns Hopkins. Another Blind Spot regarding inexpensive 'in-state' tuition puts Rick
in a bind regarding his dream to attend college next Fall.
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016 |
Serious |
Unlucky Break
Cosmic Blindness |
1967 |
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Rick's Mother forgets about child support, gets blind-sided into buying
a house she cannot afford.
As consequence, Little Mexico drives Rick to the point of madness
during his Senior year of high school |
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Mark
Twain's interest in Coincidence
was well-known.
"Ah, what a
delightful thing a coincidence
is! There isn't anybody to
whom that mysterious conjunction
which we call a coincidence is a
matter barren of interest."
Twain
encountered so many
coincidences, he reached the
point where he could no longer dismiss
them in good faith them as
curious accidents. Fed up
with people who constantly
downplayed bizarre coincidences
as silly and unimportant, Twain
decided most people avoided the
truth because they feared the spooky
Occult explanations.
What are
they afraid of? Twain
suggested that coincidences are
a function of Fate. How
else do we explain the highly
improbable incidents pairings
such as Mrs. Ballantyne's
parking lot intervention?
So why do some people fear Fate? To
believe in Fate, one has to
accept they do not have complete
control over their own lives.
Given our natural preference for
Free Will, no one likes the thought
that God's Will may sometimes
supersede Man's Will.
Mark Twain
believed we are all connected at
the level of the Soul. He
proposed a theory called 'Mental
Telegraphy', a term I
suppose is what we call ESP.
"I believe a mind can act
upon another mind in a quite
detailed and elaborate way over vast
stretches of land and water.
Somehow one mind can influence
another mind through thought alone."
-- Mark Twain
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When I read that, I thought about Maria
Ballantyne. In Real
Life Mrs. Ballantyne and I had
been strangers. However on a deeper level perhaps we were linked.
Carl Jung said something
similar, calling it the
'Collective Unconscious'. I
began to wonder if in my time of
need, some deeper part of me had
telepathically summoned the
finest mother I knew to
my side.
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Try as I might, I could not think of a better
explanation for her surprising visit.
Mrs. Ballantyne's impact on me was so
profound that I decided Mark Twain might be
right. Perhaps she and I had
a
mystical psychic connection that
defied normal understanding. Let's say in the midst of my
crisis, perhaps my soul sent an unconscious prayer to God for help.
If so, what would the message sound like?
"Lord,
I am in serious trouble right now and I hate myself. My
parents could care less about me and I have made a mess of my life.
Please, I need someone to talk to, someone to cheer me up.
Would you consider sending someone to help me regain
control?"
And the Lord would
reply, "Of course, Rick. Do you
have any suggestions?"
Surprised to get an answer, I would reply,
"Could you please send me someone similar
to Maria Ballantyne?"
The Lord smiles.
"Why yes, of course, Rick. In fact, I
can do even better than that..."
I had no way to prove it,
but I felt Mrs. Ballantyne had been guided to my side by the
Hidden Hand of God. For this reason, our 1968 meeting
in the parking lot became the cornerstone of my belief in Fate
as well as the existence of God.
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Thanks to a very strange series of coincidences,
in 1978 I was handed an unexpected career as a dance instructor. When the
Internet came along many years later, in 1999 I began to write stories about my dance
career as a way to draw people to my studio's web site.
However, the day
came in 2005 when I ran out of ideas on what to
write next. Frustrated by writer's block, it occurred to me to tell the
Parking Lot story involving Maria Ballantyne. Fearful
of ridicule, I
carefully avoided any mention of God and Coincidence.
Instead I
concentrated on sharing the importance of helping
those who are less fortunate than ourselves.
Here is the
concluding passage from my 2005 article:
"This has been the story of how a 40 minute talk in a
parking lot made all the difference in the world to me. Mrs. Ballantyne's gentle words helped me overcome a
terrible crisis.
It has also
been the story of how many people came along at times in
my life to point me in the right direction when I was
about to lose my way.
Someday I am going to come across a kid who clearly
needs a lift. Perhaps I will know the child well
or maybe just barely. And when I get my
opportunity, I hope a few kind words and suggestions of
my own will have the same healing effect that Mrs.
Ballantyne's conversation had on me many many years ago.
I will do this because I have learned the power of a
Simple Act of Kindness."
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"A
Simple Act of Kindness" was the phrase Mrs. Ballantyne
used in reference to the Galveston gangster whose offer of a
college scholarship became her break of a lifetime.
Oddly enough, I chose a picture of a
young girl placing a star on the Christmas tree to serve as
my symbolic logo for 'A Simple Act of
Kindness'. Imagine
my surprise when I learned that Maria
Ballantyne was actually born on Christmas Day. Interesting coincidence.
I might add the response to my 2005 story was so
powerful that I eventually turned it into a book of the same
name. Not only did Mrs. Ballantyne save my life
and create my interest in God, she also inspired my writing
career.
When Mrs.
Ballantyne said the gangster's 'Simple Act of Kindness'
had changed the direction of her life, I asked what that
phrase meant to her. She replied,
"It is an act of compassion similar to
the Christian story of the Good Samaritan. There will
be times in a person's life when they see someone who is
struggling. If this person will take a moment to help,
it might make a huge difference in the life of the person
who is in need."
I smiled when she said that. I
had a feeling she was well aware of her powerful effect on
me. It was
true. Due to an empathy born of the gangster's
generosity, Mrs. Ballantyne had chosen to bestow a
'Simple Act of
Kindness' of her own. Little did she know, but her
kind gesture
did not just rescue me from
acute pain, it led me to my faith in God.
Sad to say, it took me 40 years to
discover Mr. Salls had also performed
'A Simple Act of
Kindness'
on my behalf. Here is what I
think passed through his mind. Well aware
of my financial predicament, he
understood that my father's large salary and unwillingness
to prove to be a serious obstacle towards receiving a
scholarship. Although my mother never set foot at my
school, Mr. Salls knew she was hardly the best person to
negotiate the vagaries of college financial aid. My
teacher friend Ed Curran had explained enough about my
incompetent mother for Mr. Salls to realize he was the only
person capable of solving my thorny problem. Without
being asked, he decided to personally arrange my college scholarship.
However, I never a clue. 40 years later I was
crushed to realize I owed this man so much, but would never
have a chance to thank him. That really upset me.
I was also curious about
something Mrs. Ballantyne had said about him. She said
Mr. Salls always kept a close eye on me because I reminded
him so much of his own difficult childhood. I was
dying to ask her to explain further. However, I never got the
chance before she had to leave. Fortunately I got my
answers six years later.
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In 2015 I met Kim
Salls, Jr, son of Mr. Salls. Kim
revealed his father had grown up dirt
poor on a small island named Vinalhaven
off the coast of Maine. After his
younger brother died, Mr. Salls was an
only child. Then his father died
when Mr. Salls was a teenager, leaving
little behind. His mother was so
destitute, Mr. Salls had to work jobs
after school to help pay the bills.
Mr. Salls was a brilliant student.
After graduating
from his local high school, he earned
a scholarship to Philips Exeter, the
famous prep school attended by several
U.S.
Presidents. Thanks to his time at
Exeter, Mr. Salls was able to obtain a
full scholarship to Harvard.
However, since Mr. Salls refused to
say a word to his family regarding the
circumstances of his scholarship, there
was an air of mystery. How did Mr. Salls
pass the rigorous Exeter entrance exam
despite a rural backwoods education
straight out of 'Little House on the
Prairie'? Good grief, there
were at most 10 kids in his graduating
class. Furthermore, growing up on
a small island at the far edge of
civilization, who had the inside connections to
put Mr. Salls in touch with Exeter located 160
miles away?
As I
listened to Kim discuss his father, I had a
hunch Mr. Salls had been the
beneficiary of a 'A Simple Act of
Kindness' in the same mold as Mrs.
Ballantyne. That would explain
why the two of them became such good
friends. Not only did Mr. Salls
lead a near-parallel childhood to Mrs.
Ballantyne,
he led a near-parallel childhood to me.
Through the help of
others, three
poverty-stricken kids parlayed
Simple Acts of Kindness into bright futures. Together we formed a
very unlikely
triangle. What an odd coincidence,
yes? Maybe it was Fate.
One more thing.
Why didn't Mr. Salls reveal his
generosity to me? He could have
saved me a lot of heartache. Mrs.
Ballantyne and Kim Salls both said the
same thing. Were it known that the Headmaster arranged
scholarships for SJS students, the line of
parents
would be out his door. That is why my
Headmaster preferred to operate in total
secrecy.
Mr. Salls
and Mrs. Ballantyne took me under their wing for the
same reason. They saw something in me that
reminded them of themselves. Why did they want to
help? Because once upon a time someone had helped
them.
When you cannot repay those who helped you
get started, Pay it Forward.
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