Treating others as you’d like to be treated is known as the Golden Rule. It is simple yet so easy to overlook in the hub bub of daily life. Sometimes a reminder helps. I received a reminder yesterday. Our state has been in the midst of an Artic Blast. A horrible time for the furnace to stop working. It died. Soon the temperature indoors was in the 50’s. The roads were solid ice; no way to get off the hill to warmth with relatives/hotels. What to do? Calls to furnace repair companies started. 5-10, a dozen. Only one call was answered: Their service schedule was “weeks” out. The remaining calls ended with instructions to leave a message. A few indicated mail box full and couldn’t even take a message. Looming choice seemed to be get on a service call list and “wait for the thaw.”
One last call was made late yesterday to a local outfit. The owner answered. No, he couldn’t help. He was iced in himself. He hoped to get out by Christmas Eve to drive to be with his family. I could get on a wait list after his return or he knew of another small company nearby I might try. I wrote down another phone number to call and thanked him.
However, he then asked me if some sort of gizmo was near the furnace. Tough question. Papa has never had an easy relationship with anything remotely mechanical/technical. I had no idea of what he asked. I knew that modern furnaces looked different than the coal burning octopus in my grand dad’s bacement. I mentioned something about the furnace. He started to ask more questions. Soon he said there might be one solution that I could try myself. ( I had tried all the tips in the manual. ) He then took the time to walk me through it. An hour later the house was back to warm.
The patience of the owner was a life-line offered at a time of great stress. A kindness from my perspective. It was only a matter of minutes for him. He was under his own stress but didn’t just say “sorry-goodluck-bye. That brief connection with humanity helps shore up my ongoing hope for the future. You can count on the goodness of people more than you might realize. I reflected on a other times when life’s curveballs pushed me towards gloom. My stalled car in an Ohio parking lot during an Artic Blast of another year comes to mind. It feels so good when kindness is extended to you. On the other hand, I’ve always felt better then good when I’ve tried to help others. There is always someone with a need for kindness. Look for that need when possible. Life is good on the road of kindness.