i promise, last day of husband bragging for at least a week. but it’s a great story, way beyond the fact that i’m married to a pretty nifty guy.
several weeks ago, while the gals got together for cookie exchange, jj was in charge of picking up the wings from bw’s for guys + babies night. as he was leaving, he noticed a car going a bit too fast, and then it slammed into a parked SUV. the car took off as if nothing happened. so jj started following him, flashing his lights and honking his horn. the hit-and-runner went faster.
there was apparently a bit of a chase (which was nothing less than thrilling to jj, i’m sure) and he got the license plate. the guy went into walmart’s parking lot and jj lost him (once again – walmart, the root of the perils of evil!). so jj called the sherriff to make a report, and even went the extra step to going into bw’s to tell the manager and give the license plate to the owner.
so today jj got a call from the owner of the SUV. apparently it all went to court and jj’s legwork contributed greatly to the case. the kicker is, the owner wanted to send jj a gift card to bw3s.
i’m just impressed upon impressed, by both the actions of my husband and the owner of the SUV. now, this isn’t anti-typical of jj. he’s a guy who believes in rules and fairness… he’s also the guy who will get far enough over in traffic so that when merging people can’t come flying from behind and merge at the last minute. it drives me crazy. in the past i just haven’t seen the sense in playing caped crusader with traffic rules.
but this time as jj patroled the streets, mandating fairness among all drivers, it mattered to someone. it mattered so much that it was reciprocated into bw bucks.
a friend called to announce a resolution yesterday; i said that if she was successful i’d be exceptionally jealous. she wants to pay better attention to the things that matter to people. i think it’s an admirable attempt, one that benefits personal character along with other people’s happiness. i mean, really – what strengthens a relationship better than showing that you notice – or even more so, that you care.
it could be noticing your car just got slammed into, or that you’ve lost a few pounds, but i think the small things DO matter to people, so i’d love to find ways to a) notice them and b) acknowledge them.
it reminds me of the EBB quote i have at the bottom of my email:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes-
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning