Faith in Humanity

I met a couple of extraordinary people today as a result of a a bit of misfortune. It just goes to show that when life craps on you it eventually turns into mind manure. Allow me to elaborate...

So my cool looking but recently not well running classic English car broke down today - stranding my daughter and I downtown with a thunderstorm brewing and my 2nd grader soon arriving at home via bus. Enter Awesome Human Being #1: Retired Teacher Guy (RTG).

So RTG not only asks if I need help when he sees me struggling to start my ride but he goes above and beyond by offering to drive me and my daughter to the repair shop. I already have a man crush on this guy but it gets better. Turns out he's a retired school teacher who volunteers his time to go into the schools and teach extra classes on a variety of cool kid topics - rockets, pond and lake ecosystems, etc. He had me at hello.We arrive at the shop and I get out and expect him to drive away - no. He says he'll come in to introduce me to the owner. Really? People do that here? By the way, RTG drives off before I can even thank him properly, making me feel like Bad Manners Guy (BMG).

Enter Awesome Human Being #2: Mechanic Guy (MG). I arrive at his shop desperate. He leads me to his truck, we hop in and he drives us back to my stranded vehicle. He spends about 15 minutes tinkering until he declares "You got no spark. It won't run with no spark."

I guess marriages and cars are a lot alike I think at the time but I don't share because I don't want him to think I'm crazy. He recommends towing it back to my house before the rain comes and he offers to give us a lift home so I can get back in time to get my son off the bus. Who is this guy? Jesus Christ Himself? (He did have a very large gold crucifix on). On the way back to our house I find out that this guy is a youth mentor in town who volunteers at 3 local schools. I also find out that he's 45, has a kid in high school and is yearning to be passionate about what he's doing - the mechanic thing is not floatin' it for him anymore. As he said, "I saw my 16 year old nephew playing the guitar and he was so passionate about it. I told him that I wish I was like that about something." Indeed my wise new friend. But what he didn't realize is that he is passionate about something - helping people. He helped me and I'm sure he helps countless kids in the community. He's doing far more for his fellow man from what I can tell than whatever he's doing to the cars he works on.

So the car is broken but my faith in my fellow man isn't.