What Was I Thinking At the Time?

Isn't if funny how we sometimes will remember some random event that took place years ago for no particular reason. That happened to me today.

I remembered that a long time ago, I had just arrived at Krogers to buy some groceries. As I got out of my car and started to go into the store, I saw this shopping cart which for some apparent reason was barreling towards this really nice black car directly in its path about 5o feet away. I saw the driver of the car just getting out of his car and he had not seen the cart coming. I did not call out to him to warn him. I just stood there, fascinated by the randomness of what I was seeing, a grocery cart moving across a parking lot for no reason whatsoever. It was almost hypnotizing as I just stood there following the movement of the cart and waiteing to see what would happen next.

The cart accelerated and slammed hard into the front side panel of the car.

The car's owner was stunned at first and then really angry. He looked about and saw me standing about forty feet away from his car. I had not been close to the cart at all. There was no way that I could have even touched that cart because I stood at a point 90 degrees away from the path of the cart. And still, the man screamed across the lot at me, "Did you do this?"

I still just stood there for a moment or two longer, shook my head and turned to go into the store.

Looking back at that moment, I wondered to myself why I had not yelled out to warn the man that the cart was heading for his car. Why did I do nothing at all? What was wrong with me at that particular moment? What had I been thinking at the time? That it was a really "interesting" moment, at the time?

I don't have a good answer to any of those questions. However, I would like to think that I am a more caring and considerate person than I was at that moment. I really do not savor the idea that at that isolated moment in time, I was the classic bystander asking myself, "Why should I get involved, anyway. After all, that basket is not not heading towards my car. I will not get involved because this has nothing to do with me."

I would also like to think that at minimum that today I would try to do something to help prevent the collision of the cart with that fellows auto. I would like to think that some kind of ingrained sense of community would kick in now, so that I would automatically sound the alarm and get the man's attention, like a caring and considerate member if my community.

Well, we will see just what kind of stuff I am made of, the next time I am face to face one of life's painful little dramas that other people are going through. And presented with the problem in a specific situation, maybe the next time I will be able to change the outcome for the better.

We will see how I handle myself the next time. I only hope that I have learned something about caring what happens to other people and what they possess. Only time will tell what I will end up doing if something like this happens again to me.

Finding a Silver Lining In a Dark Moment

You never know when the seemingly devastating moments in your life will somehow lead you to something good and positive. Some pundit said that even the worst of times have a silver lining. I never really believed that. I just believed that when life got bumpy, I should just take life one day at a time until I regained a measure of control over the situation.

Last January 3rd, I fell asleep at the wheel and totaled my Hyundai Accent. I really liked driving that car. Although it was almost 12 years old, it had only about 132,000 miles and still drove reasonably well. But it was damaged beyond repair. But I was very lucky. I walked away from the accident with only a few bruises. Nevertheless, that experience really shook me up and it took the better part of two months to get past the mental bruising I experienced.

It is almost April now. I have moved on and am back working again. What I have discovered is that I am actually better off without that car. I have learned how to use the public transportation system to get to and from work. It really isn't all that bad a thing. The best part of taking the bus is that I have to walk about half a mile to get to the bus and another half a mile when I get to the bus stop nearest my work. By the time I get to the office, I feel good and awake and ready for the day to begin. In a million years, I could not have foreseen that outcome to a truly unnerving auto accident and that the experience would take me to a realization that there is a viable alternative to driving to work in my car.

Even better is that I have time to read a book commuting to and from work. I had been so busy before the accident that I never had time to do that. So I am able to indulge myself in an unexpected pleasurable activity by taking the bus a couple of days a week.

I guess the simple fact is that life has its ups and downs. Even when we are suffering "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," there is probably going to be an up side to whatever it is that is happening to us. As I have discovered, we need to just give things some time and that silver lining will eventually reveal itself to us. We just have to have a little patience. As Americans, that may be a little trying, because we are not a particularly patient people. We want what we want and we want it "NOW!" Maybe we have to just unlearn some very unproductive attitudes and habits and to simply turn over a new leaf in our life.