On last night's commute (which wasn't a bad commute until. . .), I was about four blocks away from home and in the left hand lane of a busy arterial - and I experienced that sickening feeling that there wasn't any commiserate reaction by pressing the accelerator. No power whatsoever. Slowly and surely I inched over to the side of the road and glided off into a vacant parking lot.
Hmmm. . . .
I didn't want a car repair bill (seriously - does anybody?). The car didn't perform its basic function of getting me from Point A to Point B (what's the point if the vehicle can't even get you where you want to go?). I had an empty coffee container in the car that needed to be returned to Starbucks that night (Oh - the pressure!). All I really wanted to do was get home (like right now!). . .have a nice dinner with the family. . .and get some sleep. All straight to hell in a handbasket. Now on one end of the spectrum, I could respond like the stereotypical teenager who finds out they can't go to the prom and throw my body onto the asphalt with the defining cry of both hopelessness and martyrdom: "My life is. . .RUINED."
But. . .
Okay, if the car was going to break down - and you're only four blocks away from the house - seriously, how fortunate is that? And, in the middle of a Seattle commute (and if you don't live here - let me assure you that Seattle statistically has some of the worst traffic in the nation) people were kind enough to let me get from the left lane to the side of the road. And just where I had to pull off was the parking lot of a fully depreciated and now-closed convenience store - so I could leave the car in the middle of a parking lot and not worry about it. Oh. . .and it was one of those beautiful spring days that was warm and sunny - so the walk home was therapeutic. And, my wife was home - so we jumped in her car, retrieved everything we needed from my car, returned the container to Starbucks (where I got a jolt of caffeine). All in all - I'm a pretty lucky guy.
Granted - two extremes of the issue - but isn't that always the case? And doesn't it enable us to move forward (because honestly, what's the choice?) faster and with greater purpose - if we recognize what is foundationally good? And honestly, being thankful for every good thing that is given us (even in difficult situations) is healthy. . .and lets us live life to a fuller purpose.
So I think about this and all of the accompanying options and I arrive at this conclusion. I choose to be a lucky man.
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I"m glad you're okay! I had a little taste of Seattle traffic last weekend; I don't even want to imagine the commute.
ReplyDeleteI needed to read this right now. My kid just sent me a text message that their work car blew a tire on the highway, "I'm okay, but I thought you'd want to know." After the initial maternal reaction, I thought, "They're okay, it was the work car not their personal car, and it's being handled. Could have been so much worse!"