5:30am. Tow Truck. Lexus. Three Year old in rocket ship foot-y pajamas.
Car will not start. 3 year old annoyed. Wants to know (repeatedly) why he is in pajamas and out of the house in the middle of the night.
Incessant questions about why the car is sick… if the car is dead… is there a new car.
Arrive at the Lexus dealership. Unpack the car and discuss estimate with Pete the car guy. Lexus provides a loaner car. Unable to commit to the car until known how long the repair will be.
It is cold. Three year old is getting a wee bit grumpy. Wanting things to hurry along.
Finally, after much discussion, the exhausted too much to do to deal with a broken car mother is granted a loaner car. (and a nice one at that) Pete make her sign all sorts of form and then starts to hand her the keys. Sleepy three year old grabs the keys from his hands and says
“I will be driving the new car, thank you.”
Jumps down from his seat and walks toward the car in a huff with his baby leopard under one arm and the keys outstretched in the other. Entire garage laughing hysterically.
I live in a small neighborhood. Most of us know each other. We wave when we drive by.
Over the past few weeks I have found “Have no Fear” magnets all over town. Someone made home-made magnet stickers and started sticking them to cars, handrails and fire hydrants.
The other day I was out for a walk with my son. We scramble down two sets of stairs that cut through the mountain that is our town. I was in my head worrying about the economy… his college education…. my last 7 lbs of flab and changed metabolism.
My son pointed to the magnet and said “READ THAT MOMMY.” I hadn’t noticed that one. Got it. Read it.
So how do we have no fear in a world where even the most optimistic man I have ever met (he just became president) served us up a giant heaping of “get ready it is going to suck.”
I am making a committment to do little things that put a smile of the faces of strangers. Someone once told me that the true test of character is what we do when no one is watching and will never know.
This morning I fed 3 expired meters on my way to work as I watched the meter maid coming up the block. $.75 . Oh crap, by telling you I did it I just ruined the true impact to my character. What is cool about the rest of this story is when I stopped at the coffee shop to get my morning large cup of decaf - the person behind me slapped down $1 and said “I saw what you did.”
So. Have no Fear is loosely translated to “Do something good for no reason.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21iVQ0iXs00
How to Break a Terrorist
http://www.amazon.com/How-Break-Terrorist-Interrogators-Brutality/dp/1416573151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231717742&sr=1-1
Posted by Christina on January 2nd, 2009