Life is bound and determined to humble the hell out of me.
Today I backed into my neighbor's mailbox and knocked it over so quickly I hardly knew what I hit until I jumped out of the car to make sure I didn't kill someone. Thankfully, the only fatality was that of my neighbor's mailbox, but still....I hit my neighbor's mailbox, and for no other reason than I can't drive backwards in a straight line.
That's the honest truth. I should never drive backwards for more than 5 seconds. If you see me doing so, please remind me to turn around and drive forward. It's not worth it. Not even if you're a mailbox.
The moment I hit the mailbox another neighbor drove by my car and stared blankly into my window. I heard the conversation between him and his daughter without even being in the car: "Did that woman just hit that car?" "Yep. Wow, appears so. Watch out for her." I shrugged my shoulders as they passed, trying to hide my humiliation, but just as soon as they were out of sight, I buried my head in my hands and just told myself to breathe.
I was/am so embarrassed. There really is no other excuse for it except I truly can't drive backwards, apparently. I already talked to my neighbor, and they were really sweet about the whole thing, claiming they'd been wanting to replace that "old" mailbox in the spring anyway. (Doubtful, but how kind of them.)
And so, just when life seems to be smooth for a minute, you get a huge reminder that humility will always win out in the end.
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"Be kind and considerate with your criticism... It's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book." Malcolm Cowley