Yeah, well… Today, I was that IDIOT.
My regretful story begins at the Costco in Alhambra... I had just finished up my weekly shopping, and was now proceeding towards the register with an exorbitant amount of paper goods. But my momentum soon came to a halt when a traffic jam suddenly materialized in front of me. In my efforts to skirt around this "pop-up" mob, I maneuvered my cart directly behind a mother pushing a cart with her child. At this point, there is no sugar-coating this story in my favor. There were no mitigating factors. No justification for my actions. I wasn’t pushed. I wasn’t on the phone. Wasn’t texting. There just isn’t a scenario here, in which I am not at complete and total fault.
In my haste, I misjudged the distance between us. And RAMMED my cart directly into this poor woman’s achilles tendon right above the heel. I would like to tell you that she was wearing high tops at the time, but sadly that was not the case. She was wearing low-cut, slip-on shoes with her achilles taking the brunt of my cart full on… I was instantly aghast as I saw the pain contorting on her face... As I stood there, helplessly apologizing over and over, she remained silent, biting her tongue and wincing in agony...
Throughout the whole exchange, she said not one word to me. I don’t blame her at all. I wouldn’t want to talk to me either... After all my apologies fell helplessly to the ground, I decided that it might be best to just get out of her sight and out of her way. Surely, I was not helping matters.
As I slinked away in shame, all I could do is ruminate in my mind about what just happened. “What could I have done?” “What should I have done?”
I’m not so naïve a person to think that “everything happens for a reason.” But on the other hand, I always try to use any experience I have, good or bad; To learn. To grow. To be better…
“So what did I take away from today’s encounter?”
As I sat quietly in the car, the biggest realization that came to me was this: That in so many occasions in life, "I AM THE IDIOT."
That all too often, I make mistakes. Big ones… Heaven’s sake, just yesterday, my son Evan requested that I buy him an orange he needed for a school speech. I told him not to worry, and that I would take care of it. The day came, and you guessed it, I forgot to bring him the orange... It had completely slipped my mind. I failed him. I let my son down... As I think more on that situation and today’s as well, Evan showed me grace. He made the best of a bad situation, still completed his speech, and forgave me when I asked for forgiveness. And while the woman today said not one word to me, I believe she also showed me abundant grace… She had every right to tear me a new one, but she didn’t.
Today’s incident forces me to take a hard look at my own imperfection. My own fallibility… I’m not saying that everyone who cuts you off is an idiot. So often times, there is a back-story to any situation. The person who’s rude to you at the restaurant could be going through an ongoing divorce proceeding. The older man driving 20 miles an hour in a 45 mile zone that you honk at while whizzing by, might be completely lost and has no idea how to find his way home.
In my life thus far, I’ve learned the hard way to “cast not the first stone” or any stone for that matter. You never truly know the full story. And even if you do... Good people still make mistakes. I know I do.
I can’t take away that woman’s pain. But I can pay it forward by extending that same amount of grace to the next person who wrongs me justly or unjustly. But even as I pontificate on “paying it forward”, this really isn’t about re-paying kindness, tit for tat... This about realization. That WE ARE ALL IDIOTS at various points in our lives. That we all make mistakes. A lot of them…. How our parents still love us as much as they do is surely a wonder to me!
So, whenever the next occasion arises, where I even dare to consider casting that first stone, whether it be: That driver. That waiter. Or that co-worker. I need to think back to how many times that I myself, was THE IDIOT, the one at fault, the one pushing the cart.
I think once we come to the realization how imperfect we truly are, the more perfect this world can truly be... #weareallidiots
