Former WWE Superstar Austin Aries posted a photo on his Instagram last week and told a story about an incident that happened while he was driving home from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida that day. Aries, who was granted his release from WWE earlier this year, did not reveal why he was at the Performance Center.
Driving home from the #wwe #wweperformancecenter today, I saw the man in the middle of this photo trying to help the man on the left push his car off a busy road and back into a parking lot…with little success. Instead of driving by, as I and we all have, it struck me to stop to help. I quickly switched lanes while ending my conversation with my mom and pulled in to park. As I ran over to lend a hand, the man on the right of this picture also came over to help. The four of us quickly maneuvered the stalled car safely out of the way, into a parking space for the extremely grateful man on the left. As we went to go our separate ways, I looked at us four guys. I got the urge to grab my phone. I asked them if I could take a photo of us because with all the divisive shit going on right now I wanted to snap a photo of what a truly great America looks like. When I saw those guys struggling, I didn’t see Non-White guys, or a Buddhist, a Muslim, an immigrant, a democrat, a republican, a gay, a straight, a rich or a poor. I saw two humans that needed some help, and I had some to offer. When the fourth man ran over I imagine he saw the same. I mean look at this fucking picture?! Could you find any four different looking people from any different walks of life?! Yet we all came together, randomly and simply as good humans, to help one another. I’ve taken endless photos, in my career and in my life, but this one was special. We need to change something in our society. We need more hands reaching out intent on helping, encouraging, applauding, and joining together. And not just to hands of the same color, connected to people just like “us.” Because no matter what is being propagated, “us” and “them” is really WE. And today this quartet, WE helped each other. WE spread love and togetherness, turning a difficult task for one into a simple task for four. The lesson is WE can accomplish so much more working together than we ever can being divided. And WE can quiet the aggressive and divisive messages we’re being bombarded with by extending our hands out to each other. Actions do speak louder than words. Today us four showed WE ain’t hearing that shit. #bethechange#we #maga
