As I do from time to time I drove to a High School in a neighboring county today to serve as a substitute teacher for the Army JROTC department there. The formula for that decision equation looks like this: If (Need for paltry paycheck + Enjoyment of teaching military subjects + Joy of teaching the good students) > (pain of dealing with the knucklehead students) then = I will teach. Some days it is a close call....
I'm on my way back to Aiken at approximately 3:30 pm, intending to go to the store on my way home, so I am on the road that becomes Banks Mill road once one is sufficiently north. I was not yet that far up the road.
All of a sudden I saw a flash of white as my car hit and drove over something. I was doing about 60 when all this happened. I looked back in my rear view mirror and there was nothing there. "This," I said to myself, "is bizarre.".
I slowed and pulled off the side of the road. Got out, and checked the front of my car. There I found a dent the size of a basketball in my front bumper. The grill on my car was smished...and there is white hair protruding from various affected spots on my Toyota. I have never noticed my Toyota with hair before, so with koala-like speed my mind eventually deduces I have hit either an animal, or an elderly person crossing the road on foot somewhere between Nowhere and Not Even Close.
I look back up the road. Nothing. So I walk the roughly 200 yards until I see it lying in the grass, adjacent to the road: The Deer. Not just any deer, mind you...This was The Deer - as in, The Deer who failed to get the memo that deer are "nocturnal", and was therefore lying in wait adjacent to the nameless road apparently so he/she/it could be The Deer who got the worse part of a self-inflicted collision between The Deer and the Toyota in the middle of broad daylight on an unusually warm, sunny day named for an animal much smaller than a deer who typically only annoys people with his shadow.
With apologies to the Monty Python troop, all that remains to be said of The Deer is he's passed on! This deer is no more! He has ceased to be! He''s expired and gone to meet his maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, He rests in peace! He's pushing up the daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, He's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!
THIS IS AN EX-DEER!!
But that isn't what this story is about.
Leaving the deer to his post-poor decision making fate, I called the insurance company, and drove my car up to Kelly Paint and Body (I'm afraid I know them, and they know my car too well!).
The insurance company had alerted Enterprise Car Rental...and when I finished at the body shop, I called Enterprise and they sent Ted to get me in a big honkin' Suburban (that thing could take on an entire flock of stupid, diurnal deer....)
We get to the rental place, and the situation turns out that they are renting out cars just as the cars are being returned. Hardly any inventory on the lot. With five of us standing at the same counter, going no place soon, I get into a conversation with the lady standing next to me. She seems pleasant enough.
We talk about involuntary deer culling, and various makes of vehicles, and general chit chat, and somehow in the conversation she revealed that her husband had passed away. After listening to her finish her story, I said to her "You look young to have lost a husband". Now, this is not something I ever would have predicted myself saying...but I felt prodded to address it!
Her demeanor changed immediately. I won't go into the details of that part of the conversation out of respect, but it turns out that losing her husband wasn't the only tragedy in her life of late. And she sort of opened up right there and began telling me about it. I was thinking she might be a good candidate for our church's Grief Share ministry and as I had that thought she told me "You know I'm not sure I've actually grieved all of this..."
There followed a brief explanation of our church and Grief Share...and one needn't be a member of our church...and would she accept a phone call from the lady that runs that program? If so, I will pass your number along to her and ask her to call you...and I promise I won't use your number for any other purpose....
Do you know that lady picked up a pen, wrote down her name and number and gave it to me? She said "thank you for telling me about this. I really would like to learn more."
They called my name at that point, my rental car was ready
As I shook her hand, she said "I'm sorry you had to run into that deer but I don't think it is a mistake that we met and you told me about this program."
There are several imponderables in this story. But the lesson I come out of this with is the lesson of overcoming myself to say something caring but slightly uncomfortable (for me) to a stranger. From that out-of-character act came an opportunity to discover a need and offer a helping hand (even though it is not my own.)
That is the serious lesson. The not-so-serious lesson is one I'm still pondering: Since this whole thing began with The Deer choosing suicide by Toyota, and ended in doing the Lord's work, do I get to claim the $500 insurance deductible as a credit on my tithe? :)
Where is our next opportunity to discover and lift up a broken human? If it is anything like this one, it may be at a time when one might have reason to be self-absorbed but chooses instead to respond to this little urge to focus outward instead.
Love you all.....
1 comments:
I'm reading a book called Kisses from Katie and she talks about just loving the one in front of you. You can't feed them all but you can feed the one in front of you.
Post a Comment