Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Stranded

"How did you spend New Year's Eve?" My mum asks, her voice lacking humour.  She then sighs in exasperation. "Us? Stranded on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck."

What was supposed to be a simple one hour trip has been stretched and elongated to, as it stands now, over two hours with another hour of waiting for the tow truck and then another hour on the road after that.  Can I hear the cheers of excitement?

Woohooo....

This is not how my mum and I imagined our day to be going.  Let's not forget that it is New Year's Eve meaning that wherever we get towed to will not be open.  Lovely, eh?

So we've been sitting on the side of the road for two hours and do you want to know something? Of all the cars that have passed us in that time--and there have been many--only one paused enroute to ask us if we were okay.  Only one.  This is one way to do a behavioural experiment.  Now, I can't honestly say that if I were the one driving by I would stop.  There are other unknown factors that would all hold influence. But it does make me think.  About what I should do. About the selflessness it would take to ignore my own life and my own desires to help someone else.

Despite our current circumstances, I seek the silver lining and the life lesson I can take with me when we get on the road again.

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