Do you ever do dumb things?
Just like… dumb things… and have to pay the consequence for them…?
The other night I spent a few hours at my brother’s house. When I went out to my car, it wasn’t there. I patrolled the street slowly, with my clicker in hand…hoping that I was temporarily blind and forgetful. I was sure I would see the flashing headlights or hear the beep and my car would suddenly appear in a place that I just had absentmindedly forgotten I had parked it.
After several minutes of the fruitless search, I headed back to my brother’s house and gave them the unfortunate news: “Guys, my car is gone. I think someone stole it.” My brother and sister-in-law didn’t seem to believe me, which may have been due to my smile and lack of panic in my voice. If I’m being honest, some small part of me was thinking about how I had wanted to get a new car lately and this was a good enough reason to do it… that all was, of course, immediately followed with the million inconveniences of having a car stolen.
My brother and I went out to the street, walking up and down, checking side roads and eventually he decided I should call the cops.
“Uhh, hi. I’m calling because my car is missing…?” I wasn’t really sure the best way to report such an incident.
“What type of car is it?”… (it’s better if you can imagine that in your best Boston accent).
He quickly told me that my car had been towed for parking in front of a driveway.
$176 and an hour later, I was back in my car again…driving away from the gates of the towing company.
It was one of those dumb moments. Moments where you do something and it costs something. It cost me a good chunk of money, and it cost my brother a bit of time… and it was just stupid. I remember looking to my brother and saying, “Why does stuff like this even happen? It’s just dumb.”
Because it is dumb. I even double-checked where I parked and still failed to realize it was in front of a driveway, which makes me feel even dumber.
It’s kind of made me think about how we respond to things like this in life. Part of me wanted to cry because it felt unfair. I also wanted to get mad at the tow truck guy, or annoyed with the cop, and even in the midst of trying to get cash and not knowing my debit card pin number (which was another whole ordeal) I want to scream at my brother. Because somehow it’s everyone else’s fault that I did something stupid, right?
But no.
It was my fault.
And it was stupid.
And it cost me something. I have to pay the consequences when I do stupid things, even when they’re unintentional. Reality check.
So instead of getting angry and blaming my own stupidity on everyone else, there had to be an alternative reaction. I chose to laugh. I chose to be kind to the cop, I chose to be kind to the tow truck guy (also recognizing that I had just made him come do me a favor late on a Sunday night). It helped when I called my mom up on the way home to tell her how stupid her daughter is and she laughed for almost the whole phone conversation.
Because- what else are you going to do?
Sometimes you just do stupid things… and it’s not the end of the world. Sometimes you do stupid things and you have to pay the price… but it is what it is. It’s easy to want to re-do it, to wish a thousand times over that you could go back and park somewhere different… but you can’t. And so you move on. You pay the price and you move on.
I don’t know if you’ve done any dumb things lately… dumb things that may have had a cost to them. But, I hope that you haven’t let the frustration consume you. I hope you haven’t let the frustration soak in and violate your character or integrity. I hope that you haven’t blamed someone else for your misfortune (especially if it was your dumb mistake).
I hope that we can be people, even in the midst of our stupidity (because we all have stupid moments)…who treat others with honor and respect and love. I hope we can laugh. And I hope we can move on. While, yes, it feels like a waste of money and yes, it feels like a perfectly avoidable thing… it still happened… and it’s okay. Life goes on.
So, let’s laugh at our occasional moronic-ness, let’s move on, and let’s not blame others for things that aren’t their fault. Let’s not be a jerk to the people doing their jobs…but let us still love them well, even if it puts us out some.
This too shall pass (even if it feels like a big dent in your wallet right now).