There Must Be A Reason

I was awarded a Metals Inspection Project last week for street light poles on Alta Knoll Drive in Santa Clarita. I knew it was going to be a long drive, but since there were only 22 poles to inspect, I thought it would be a fairly quick and easy project. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

The job consisted of inspecting the metal at the base of each street light pole. Unfortunately, I had to push a heavy roll cart filled with tools and the poles were spaced about a hundred yards apart. That may not seem so bad, but 22 poles equals 2200 yards, which is 1 ½ miles! And not only, I discovered when I got there that Alta Knoll Drive is one heck of a super steep, extremely narrow, winding mountain road with “No Parking” signs the entire length.

I had to park at one end or the other, so I chose to park at the top of the street and work my way down with my roll cart. Pretty smart, right! The other smart thing was that I took orange safety cones with me and although several cars tried to squash me into the guard rail, I somehow managed to survive. Now my problem was I had to leave my roll cart behind and hike back up the long road. I decided to carry some of my more expensive tools and equipment with me so they wouldn’t get stolen, but by the time I was halfway up the mountain, I was gassed! By the time I finally got to my truck at the top of the road, my legs were burning, my lungs were burning, and my throat was on fire. I drank an entire bottle of water in 10 seconds. Then I sat there exhausted and thought to myself, “This is really hard work and you’re not young anymore, so why are you doing this? There must be a reason!”

When I got home my wife made a great meal and we sat out on our patio to enjoy the view. She asked me if we could talk about Christmas, which was interesting because Christmas is months away. But she explained she was worried about our budget this year, and since I am only working part-time, she wanted to plan ahead to make sure there was enough money to cover everyone on our list. (My wife loves to buy thoughtful presents for deserving people!) As I reviewed her list, I saw a name I hadn’t seen on our Christmas list before, Nelia, who is the caretaker we hired to help my wife’s mother who has Alzheimer’s. Nelia is an amazing woman with a heart of gold who is providing outstanding care to someone we love, at a time when she really needs it. I agree with my wife that we should buy her something really nice at Christmas time. In fact, I think her generous nature is one of the things I love most about her.

So why I am still working hard at age 66 to make a little extra money? I think I figured out the reason!

There are three things in life that should be important.

The first is to be thoughtful. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be generous.

        ~ Henry James