Sunday, December 13, 2009

paying it forward

It was not a fun drive home from Gramma and Grandpa's tonight. We left about 5 minutes after the last bite of pie was had, thrown out by my dad who knew a storm was comin'. It was raining at 3, and the car told us it was 36 degrees. I don't think we went over the speed limit on the whole drive up the turnpike, and just as WB was about to pull in for a fresh cup of joe, the rain changed over and the temp dipped to 32... so he kept on driving. Luckily, the change-over was quick, and it went straight to snow. We got almost home-- about 10 miles away-- when a deer ran across the road about 3 cars in front of us. Unfortunately, said cars stopped in the middle of the road, checking to see the damage to the lead vehicle, and almost causing an accident with those behind them. But that's not the story here: we were a quarter of a mile from home when we came upon a young driver burried in a snow bank. We stopped and asked if he was ok, and he was pretty confident he could get it out... but us, not so much. We hopped out and helped push him out. Disaster averted.

If I'd been thinking clearly, my parting advice (in addition to the "be careful!" I threw his way) would have been to pay it forward. For those of you not familiar with the movie, you won't regret a rental. I've talked about this concept with my Sunshines a lot, and my own kids get it without thinking. Instead of paying someone back when they help you out of a jam, pay it forward and help the next person you see in need of help. If everyone helped 3 people, and those people helped 3 people, we'd have a lot more helping going around. It was nice to have an opportunity to practice what I preach.

1 comment:

SJ said...

I drove through that same mess. It seems whenever I have a holiday related trip to go to with the 93 year old Grandmother in tow there is a storm. So far I'm 3 for 3 for the storms, and knock on wood we have been safe