When much younger I'd leap at the
chance to help someone. “No problem!” I'd say.
Well, after being taken and used by
unscrupulous selfish pigs, I wised up. I started picking and choosing
just who I'd rescue. There were many times I'd could've offered a
helping hand but quietly held back, saving myself
the effort and grief.
Like every one else this morning, I
kicked open the storm door as a snow drift had tried to entomb me in
my own house. I managed to move a few feet out onto the sidewalk and
stood there, gawking at the other, higher snow drifts, my buried car
and the unplowed street.
“It's gonna take me half a day to dig
that car out and the other half to dig the walkways out...shit.” I
thought.
As I was inching along the sidewalk by
my kitchen door, slinging the snow over, my neighbor, a much older,
very alone women, chimes in from her upstairs window.
“Ronnnnnnie! Ronnnnnie! Could you
dig me out?”
Immediately I turned around and said
this: “I'll see what I can do old girl, this is one hell of a
snowstorm.” And then broke off that conversation and back to
shoveling. I said that to toss plenty of cold water on her idea. I
quickly surmised that the TON of work shoveling would be
doubled had I agreed to dig her out also.
So, I kept digging along, having a
conversation with myself on whether I'd do it.
“Son of a bitch...it's bad enough I'm
trying to burrow my way to the street...I have to do it again next
door?”
I finished up, came in, pulled off my
frozen jeans and sat down for a good two hours before I started
noticing a nagging sound in my head.
“Ronnnnieee....”
I then think.
“She's near 80, she's weak, she can't
escape, she feels trapped...Oh for God's sake...What else were you
going to do today anyway? Watch TV? Clean the house? (Christ, I
won't do that!), Blow time on the internet? Get out there and help
her.”
So, back out I went. I dug away,
tossing that heavy crap onto her lawn. I managed to free her to the
yet unplowed street I live on. “Well, it gives her some sense of
not being trapped.” I thought.
Perhaps, if I make it to near 80,
someone might do this for me, I’ll need it then.
Pay it forward they say. But that doesn't mean I enjoyed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment