Earlier today, I was stopped at a red light waiting to make
a left turn in a very long line of cars.
I passed the minutes by belting along, concert style, with a Brandi
Carlile tune playing on my iPhone. My
focus was not at all on the exasperated driver across the road, waiting to make
a left turn and join the line...although in retrospect my subconsciousness had
taken in the entirety of the scene. She
had a clearly unhappy-looking grimace on her face as she was leaning forward
against the steering wheel, rocking ever so slightly in what I'm guessing was
an attempt to plead her case to someone in line. My turn came to go and with my foot on the
gas pedal, I inched forward at the exact split-second I realized she was
there. Both messages of GO and STOP were
simultaneously sent from my brain and reached my right foot at the same awkward
instant. With a long line of impatient drivers
behind me, my car jerked to a stop in the same way a teenage driver spastically
learns to drive a stick shift. I waved
her in. The passenger of the other car had her window down and as they passed
by, she shot me the biggest toothy grin ever and applauded. I smiled back and
gave her the requisite Seinfeldian "you're welcome" wave. At the time I didn't think the gesture
warranted such joyful recognition as applause, but later, the whole
seconds-long event got me to thinking.
How long had those ladies been waiting?
How many other cars ignored the driver's request to jump in line? Were those other cars just too hurried to be
nice? Were they hoping to make the green
light before getting stuck for another round of turn-waiting? How many cars were just too preoccupied to
notice they were there? So why me? Who were these two ladies and what cosmic
connection did I have to them? Did I
maybe just right some past wrong? Maybe
it wasn't even in this lifetime. Could it be that that simple act just fixed
some past-life karmic event gone awry?
Maybe we've both been healed in some way as a result. I have NO idea. OR, did I just set in motion some huge
good-deed ripple-effect with that seemingly insignificant act of kindness? Better yet, the ripple effect was already in
motion set by someone else and I just jumped on one outlying wave and passed it
on. Will they now get to where they are
going on time as a result of this quick interaction? Now they won't miss that flight or that movie
or that dinner reservation. Or rather,
they were just tired and wanted to go home.
Whatever the case, I'm hoping their improved mood will motivate them to
carry the ripples to someone else. Hold
a door open for an elderly person perhaps or help someone load groceries in
their car or give someone else a warm smile...something. I think there was a commercial on TV a while
back about this very subject...it was a good one but obviously not good enough
since I don't remember what it advertised. Perhaps it was just advertising the
potentially global benefit of a single kind deed. I suppose it could have been both ripples AND
karmic repair at work here. Or maybe
neither came into play today and those ladies in the other car went on with
their day completely unaffected...but judging by the grateful grin I got in
return, I don't think that's likely. In
any case, ripples or karma or otherwise, nothing bad ever came out of a good
deed no matter how small.
Although...hmmmm. I suppose in
this case I could have easily been rear-ended by the
ever-impatient, forward-inching driver behind me and that
would have been a very bad result.
Perhaps my good deed caused a horrible chain-reaction car accident in
the line behind me...
No comments:
Post a Comment