The Circle of Life

I hate to say it, but sometimes people suck! Okay, I know that’s harsh and I don’t really mean it, but here is what I do mean. Last week I kept running into really rude people. Speeding cars cut me off, store clerks ignored me even though I was standing right in front of them, a pharmaceutical company billed me for medicine I didn’t get and then argued with me that I did get it, and worst of all somebody stole some of my tools while I was renovating a new house I bought in Ladera Ranch. Nobody should ever steal a man’s tools!

I found myself getting really frustrated and losing faith in my fellow man. Normally I am a very positive person who truly believes that most of the people in this world are good and try to do what’s right. But the bad people in this world must have had my number last week…  that is until Friday!

On Friday I took a trip to Home Depot to buy some renovation materials and to replace my tools that were stolen. That one short shopping trip quickly turned my attitude around.

• While shopping for new closet doors, I struggled to lift them onto a cart. A Home Depot employee saw me and came to my aid. When I thanked him for his help, I found out he wasn’t actually an employee, he was vendor cleaning up his product section. Nice of him to come to my aid!
• After going through the Self Check Out Counter, I left the store but heard someone calling after me in the parking lot. Apparently, I had left two items on the counter and a woman chased me down to give them to me. Nice of that lady to go out of her way to help me out!
• As I was loading material into my truck, a guy walked up behind me and told I had dropped some paperwork in the parking lot. It was my “to do list” with a lot of important info on it. Nice of that guy to notice and save me a lot of grief!
• When I arrived at the Ladera Ranch house, the contractor I hired to install new baseboard molding was waiting for me. He said he borrowed my drill and drill bits earlier in the week because his drill battery ran dead. But then he forgot to put them back in the garage. He not only apologized, he gave me a discount on his labor. How nice is that!

I know those four things that happened on Friday might seem inconsequential to most people. But they all happened on the same day, so I think they might have happened for a reason. Maybe I just needed a reminder that sometimes I too... drive too fast, ignore people, make mistakes, and forget to return items. I guess the world isn’t a perfect place and people aren’t ever going to be perfect, but the world is round, so maybe that means… what goes around comes around!

In the circle of life, there are no straight lines.

~ James Dolan