no grace for anyone

recently watched the latest cohen brothers film, "no country for old men." i liked it very much and this is not a review, suffice to say, it is a beautifully made film entertaining themes of greed, violence, fate... and grace. i was struck with three scenes in it that seemed to be linked- all of them involved a "good samaritan" situation where there was a party in need and a party moved by human compassion. in each of the scenes, the one in need of help jockeyed for power by offering the other person multiple hundred-dollar bills in recompense for what the person was already moved to do out of kindness. the impact of the decision is obvious- somehow, the "good samaritan" becomes less good because their helping impulse has been given a price. the question now becomes how one can raise the price and exploit the situation. a tag-line on some posters for the film reads, "you can't stop what's coming"- well... unless its grace.