It Never Fails to Amaze Me
December 25, 2011, early afternoon, I had a teensy-weensy, itty-bitty, little accident involving my car, a piece of concrete and a metal fence. Surprisingly, my car was the victor in this small mishap. I was trying to back out of a parking space and, instead, found myself barreling forward. I went over the raised concrete slab and straight into the fence with enough speed to yank it out of the ground, twist it, and stop when my front passenger tire caught on the fence. I was a bit perturbed with myself and slightly freaked at this occurrence.
After calming down, I called my brother on my fully charged cell phone (yea, me!) and proceeded to await his highly anticipated arrival. I would like to note that two days before, I spent about an hour at Discount Tire Co. waiting for my tires to be rotated and checked for leakage. Thank the Lord I didn't need a new tire! Saved myself a few hundred dollars there.
As I sat in my car contemplating life's awkward little moments, the "it never fails to amaze me" thing happened. One pedestrian and 13 (count them, 13) cars slowed down enough to gawk at my misfortune!! The sad part of this story is that not one person stopped to offer assistance of any kind. I could have been injured, without a phone, or any number of serious scenarios might have occurred. Not one person on this Christmas day cared enough about my welfare to stop to ask if I needed help!
Isn't this the season of giving? Aren't we supposed to aid our fellow man (or, in this case, our fellow woman)? To paraphrase the mother of my best friend: I would rather see someone's words in action than sit down to listen to them. All that compassion and caring crap we are so fond of spouting means nothing when we can't take a few minutes out of our holiday to help another human being in need.
Luckily, my car and I exited the accident with a few scrapes and eye rolls. However, my anger and disappointment at my fellow human beings took more time to abate. I'm not an eye-for-an-eye type of gal (well, mostly I'm not) so I won't think twice about offering whatever help I can when I see someone in need of it. But I might pause for a few seconds, just in case...
After calming down, I called my brother on my fully charged cell phone (yea, me!) and proceeded to await his highly anticipated arrival. I would like to note that two days before, I spent about an hour at Discount Tire Co. waiting for my tires to be rotated and checked for leakage. Thank the Lord I didn't need a new tire! Saved myself a few hundred dollars there.
As I sat in my car contemplating life's awkward little moments, the "it never fails to amaze me" thing happened. One pedestrian and 13 (count them, 13) cars slowed down enough to gawk at my misfortune!! The sad part of this story is that not one person stopped to offer assistance of any kind. I could have been injured, without a phone, or any number of serious scenarios might have occurred. Not one person on this Christmas day cared enough about my welfare to stop to ask if I needed help!
Isn't this the season of giving? Aren't we supposed to aid our fellow man (or, in this case, our fellow woman)? To paraphrase the mother of my best friend: I would rather see someone's words in action than sit down to listen to them. All that compassion and caring crap we are so fond of spouting means nothing when we can't take a few minutes out of our holiday to help another human being in need.
Luckily, my car and I exited the accident with a few scrapes and eye rolls. However, my anger and disappointment at my fellow human beings took more time to abate. I'm not an eye-for-an-eye type of gal (well, mostly I'm not) so I won't think twice about offering whatever help I can when I see someone in need of it. But I might pause for a few seconds, just in case...