Life Lesson Learned from a Hit and Run

Hit and Run

I don’t know how your Saturday morning started. Perhaps, it was a “normal“ day for you and your family. I surely hope so. My family, however, was not quite-so-lucky this morning.

It all started when I, unusually, awoke from my sleep at a bright-and-early-time-before-7:30-a.m. this morning. This may not sound so off-base for many of you early risers, but let me remind you: I’m a teacher. And it’s a Saturday. In the summertime. Needless to say, 7:30 a.m. isn’t my go-to wake-up call for a summertime Saturday. In fact, if I had anything to do with it, 7:30 a.m. wouldn’t even be on my radar.

Shortly after waking up, the doorbell rang and was followed by a knock at the front door. Dad answered the door to greet two of our neighbors, who apparently had a third-party, not-so-great story to share with us. From there, it all unraveled.

An unknown driver hit three of the cars parked in front of our house. And didn’t stick around to leave any explanation or any evidence as to why. Well, let me take that back, the driver didn’t leave any evidence – except for the left front headlight that fell off of her car in the process. After examining the remains of this hit-and-run, we called the police. And a policeman, who doesn’t believe in playing games, promptly came to take a look at the scene and then proceeded to investigate further by taking a drive around the neighborhood. Considering the fact that there’s a ridiculous number of Pontiac Grand Am’s missing a front left headlight in our neighborhood (I think the number is inching towards 5.), the task to find the culprit seemed quite daunting at first. However, as my parents decided to take a Saturday stroll through the neighborhood later in the morning, a car on the other side of our neighborhood fit the exact description of the one headlight at the scene of the incident. As I type, the cops are on their way to our house – yet again.  And though the exact details are yet unknown and stories are yet to be told, I’m certain justice will ensue.

As cliché as it is to say, it’s true: “In every bad situation, there’s always good to be found.” In this case, everyone in my family is okay, and cars can always be fixed. But perhaps, what’s more upsetting than the actual event and the left-over damage from it all is the lack of responsibility of the person who did it. The lack of ownership, honesty, and integrity.

In times like this, we always have options we can take and choices to make. We can focus on being angry about what happened, but we can’t reverse it. We can focus on getting justice to this situation, but it will only scratch the surface of the real (and much deeper) issues at play in the life of the person responsible. We can focus on the long road of cop conversations, insurance red tape, random neighbor TMI, and car repairs. Along the way, appointments will be made, stories will be shared, people will be met, and lessons are sure to be learned – by all involved. It’s not fun, but I’m sure it’s all happening for a reason, or perhaps many reasons, far beyond our control or comprehension.

As silly as it all sounds, I’ve already found a spiritual parallel in the midst of it all. The person responsible for all the damage to my family’s cars last night clearly made a wrong turn somewhere. I’m not just referring to a wrong turn (or lack of turn) in the road; but, on a much grander scale, they’re clearly making some consistent wrong turns in life. In the midst of a BIG wrong turn last night, they left behind one of the most valuable assets their car had to offer – their headlight.

Stick with me for a second….What are headlights on a car used for? Lighting the way, right? They’re there to help with guidance and direction. They try to help you make sure you stay the course.

I feel like sometimes our lives can be like the crazy driver from last night’s Hit-three-Hill-family-cars-and-keep-truckin’ episode. We clearly miss the mark. If we’re honest, we know that we all make wrong turns in life, at some point or another. Maybe our wrong turns aren’t taken from behind the wheel of a car, but in some shape or another, we all miss the mark. We. All. Do. But, what’s worse, is this: we leave our light at the scene of the accident. We don’t go back, take a look at what’s happened, and pick up helpful remnants that rightfully belong to us and use them to help guide us back to the path we need to be on.

Granted, not all of our poor decisions will land us an actual, physical jail cell like this one perhaps will for my neighbor. In fact, most of them probably won’t. But all poor choices and wrong turns have consequences. I wonder… how many of us go back and own our mistakes? How many of us are willing to pick up the remnants of our poor decisions and actually deal with their consequences? Yes, it’s sometimes a messy thing to do. But cleaning up a mess is far better than trying to continuously deal with concealing one.

            Today, go back to the scene of the wrong turn, own the accident, and deal with the mess. Not only is it the right thing to do, but your headlight is also waiting there to guide you back home.