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Ritter’s Rant 076: Pay it Forward

Источник: https://scottritter.substack.com/p/ritters-rant-076-pay-it-forward

Hello, and welcome to this edition of Ritter's Rant. Today, I'm going to talk about paying it forward. In 2000, there was a movie made by that name, Pay It Forward, Kevin Spacey, and a young kid, you know, it was a movie about, you know, helping people out. doing things. And then the idea is once you get helped out, you help other people out. And, uh, there's a cascade about that. And, uh, the movie was popular, but, you know, people go to movies and say, well, that's just Hollywood. It's not real. It doesn't really happen. You know, it's just, you know, blah, blah, blah. Well, you know, a couple of years ago, my wife and I, uh, traveled to, um, California to visit my parents and the way that airplane tickets are, flying directly into Palm Springs would cost us around $100 more than if we took one of these cheap flights to Las Vegas and then rented a car and drove. We would actually save, you know, 800 bucks.

And since I'm not rich, 800 bucks is a good thing. So we were driving from Las Vegas to Palm Springs and we go through a stretch of desert north of the Marine base of 29 Palms where I used to be stationed near Amboy, Amboy Crater. You guys can look at it on a map, but it's a very desolate area. No people, no nothing. And we're trying to get there in time for Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving meal. And so we're sort of time is time is essential. And we're driving and driving and we pass this car and I look and there's this car heading the other way and it's off the side of the road, but it has bottomed out. It got into the soft sand. Apparently they pulled over for whatever reason and they got in the soft sand and it was bottomed out. And there was a lady there, a young lady. She had a dog. and in her arms and a guy on the hands knees trying to dig that car out. And, you know, my wife and I drove on and I went, we got we got we can't just we got to help.

And she agreed. And so we turned around and we went there and, you know, I spent some time with the guy trying to dig it out. And I said, we're never going to get this thing out. And, you know, the whole time we were there, no cars were going by. And if a car did go by, it didn't stop. So these guys were literally up the creek without a paddle. So I said, look, why don't you guys lock up your car, you, your dog, get in ours and we're going to drive you to 29 Palms about an hour away and we'll take you to a towing car company and we'll arrange to have a truck come out and pull you out of the sand. And, you know, this guy was a young Marine. He had gotten what's called a 96. That's a four day pass. They're tough to come by. And he and his young wife We're going to go visit her family in Henderson, Nevada, a town just south of Las Vegas. And when you're on a 96, time is everything. That's 96 hours.

And every hour spent trying to dig your car out or waiting is one hour you're not home with the family. And he was a young Marine. He doesn't have any money. And they were just devastated because they were basically looking at their entire vacation plans going down drain uh we got there and we asked the um the towing company you know how much was this going to be and uh it was a considerable amount of money um i mean not millions but you know it was money and uh there's money clearly this marine didn't have so um i left my credit card and i said uh whatever it is add a uh at a 25 tip and uh i'm just going to trust you to build the proper amount And the guy said, I promise you I will. He said, I'm a former Marine myself, and what you're doing for this Marine is very good. So we're going to give him a good deal and all that. And we left that Marine family there. And sure enough, I got an email about an hour and a half later from the tow company.

They told me how much money they had charged the car. And they said, we got them out. The car is fully functional. And we got them on their way. They're headed home. And it made my wife and I feel pretty good. It was like, wow. We did something cool, help somebody out, you know, and you don't do it for reward. You don't do it for recognition. You don't do it for anything. You just do it because it's the right thing to do to help people out. And we weren't thinking about paying it forward. You know, we weren't expecting anything good to happen to us. It was just the right thing to do at the time. Well, this morning I took our dogs out to the. dog park that we go to, there's been some snow and it was tough getting in there and driving in. I'm fishtailing all over the place. And I'm like, we really should be doing this. But the dogs were in the car and they were excited about going to the park.

So we did it. We took them to the park. They ran around, did their thing. And we're coming home and the dogs are jumping all over my lap and everything. And I got distracted and I went off the road and I buried my car. in the snow and ice, literally up to the up to the engine wheels covered. I couldn't get out. I'm in, you know, just got to get to work. We got the dogs in the car and we're stuck in the middle of nowhere. And because of the weather, because of the road conditions, wasn't anybody coming. We were on our own and we're in an area with sort of bad cell phone reception. So it was looking grim. But being the former Marine that I am, I I looked in the back and I had one of those, uh, brushes used to wipe your windows off and everything. And I, I got out and I just started trying to dig this car out and I, I had made decent progress, but, um, you know, I wasn't dressed for outdoor adventures.

I had a pair of, uh, shoes on slip on shoes. Um, and the, the snow by the driver's side was knee deep and I had, gone in there and you know i have a neuropathy i can't feel my feet that's a whole nother issue but one of my shoes came off and i didn't realize it so i'm down there digging around for about 10 minutes my foot is turned into a solid block of ice but i couldn't see but i got this pink foot sticking out there in the middle of nowhere trying to dig the car out and um suddenly i hear a voice shout from behind me dude put your shoes on and get in the car. You know, we got this. And I looked over and there, there were two guys there. Um, they were from a private company. Um, there had been major, uh, anybody who follows my writing remembers, I wrote about the, uh, killed their eggs and the, uh, you know, the gas pipeline that was put in and all this stuff. And, um, you know, there was a lot of, um, contractors that were involved in that project.

I guess these guys were sent out because of the weather just to make sure everything was okay. Um, It was fortunate they came by, but they saw me. I guess it was my pink foot that gave me away because the rest of the car was buried in the snow. And they said, you got to get in the car. And we worked it out, but they dug me out. A lot of work. They attached a tow line and we were able to get my car out of the ditch and get my wife and I safely back on the road. You know, and we'd still be there right now if it weren't for these two guys. They had no obligation, no duty, no responsibility to stop for us. They could have just said, hey, we'll go get help. But they made a decision that they were going to do the heavy work. You know, they refused to accept money. They refused to accept anything except a handshake of thanks. They were truly, you know, angels sent down to help us in a time of need.

And basically what we did to that Marine family, It got paid for. People came down with an act of kindness. And I wanted to talk about it today because we live in sort of very stressful times. A lot of pressure on us, a lot of pressure at home. The economy isn't as great as everybody claims it's going to be. A lot of people are working, you know, paycheck to paycheck. There's stresses. There's everything. We have domestic problems here in America. We have problems overseas, rumors of war and actual war. And I think tensions are high and we lose our tempers easily. We tend to forget that, you know, the people out there feeling the same way, going through the same pressures, their fellow human beings. And, you know, we Rather than creating additional stress for one another, we should be doing our best to de-stress. And we de-stress by helping people in need. It can be an act of kindness. I mean, if you're at the store and you see somebody struggling because maybe they have a little bit too much in front of them and not enough money in their wallet to pay for it, step forward and pay the bill.

The other day I was at the train station and... There was a homeless person there who basically I was paying for snacks I was bringing on the train. And he said, would you be able to help me out? And I had watched several people go through the line before me and nobody helped them out. And I said, sure, bring it up. And he rang it up and he was able to get a drink and some food. It didn't cost me a lot of money. It was just an act of kindness to pay it forward. Who knows? Someday he might be able to help somebody else out. And that's the whole thing. If we just start helping people, we just start being kind to people. And We pay it forward. We have people kind to us. We help people. There's no duty. There's no obligation. It's just basic human responsibility. If we just start behaving as human beings, treating each other with respect, loving kindness, it's amazing how good things will start to happen.

I shouldn't be here right now. I should be about seven miles away. a buried car running out of gas car overheating dogs uh in distress wife angry at me um that's where i should be but i'm not i'm here able to talk to you because the kindness of two strangers who took it upon themselves to come to the aid of somebody who clearly was in need of help and i thank these two gentlemen and um i encourage everybody to just Go forth today, and if you see somebody who needs help, help them out. And if not, just be kind, a smile, a handshake, a nod of the head, anything. We pay kindness forward, and karma will ensure that kindness comes back. Anyways, that's my rant. The next time a thought crosses my mind, I'll be sure to let you know.