A story truly worth cherishing

To the editor:

After church I chanced to meet a former student who told me that she was eating with her mother. "Your mother and I are neighbors," I told her. "I don't have many neighbors any more, and because she is my neighbor she is commanded to pull me out of the ditch, if she finds me there, to put Band-Aids on my wounds and send me on my way."

"I hope that she won't pass by on the other side," the daughter replied.

I did not have to ask her if she knew the story of the Good Samaritan. That story has been a part of our culture for 2,000 years, told in a country far away in a language long before there was the English language. But the story underscores an important truth. In an age when the old values are painfully questioned, it remains worth cherishing.

PETER HILTY

Cape Girardeau