Take No Offense

I am going to switch gears and tune this week from Detroit and Motown (note the clever automotive and music references). It isn't from design. I had a blog all ready to publish this morning that had not saved properly and it is gone except for a beginning fragment like ancient papyrus. I don't know if I have it in me to write again. Probably good to take a break from this focus anyway. I still have a few more Motown and/or Detroit blogs in my head for down the road. We'll see if they get written or not.

However, there is another topic that I can write about that has a nice simple point but a good lesson. And it involves automobiles. A couple of weeks ago I was hosting the monthly Craft Church where good theology and good beer co-exist and one of the regulars couldn't make it because she was ill. Her boyfriend still came and we had a good time talking over James 1:8 about being a double-minded man, what it meant. We in attendance had a deep time talking about and thinking through the verse. And, yes, we had some fine beer, too.

Towards the end of the evening, a knock on the door occurred. I thought maybe somebody was just stopping by, better late than never type of thing. I opened the door and it was my neighbor two doors down asking if I knew who the truck out on the road, which was blocking their driveway, belonged to. I answered quite truthfully, "I have no idea."  One of the guys in attendance stood up and looked out the door. The truck was his. It was an honest mistake on both my end in not knowing and he accidentally parking in front of the neighbor's driveway. It had been dark at 7:00 PM when Craft Church started and he normally would have come with his girlfriend (the one who was sick) who usually drives. 

What impressed me about the interaction was how my neighbor was graceful in asking the question about the truck rather than having a tone of accusation and railing. She wasn't looking to dish it out or assume someone had done so intentionally. My buddy also was apologetic and owned up for the oversight. No escalation occurred and maybe I shouldn't have been so shocked. Yet, I have to be honest. If it had been me whose driveway had been blocked I would not have been so charitable, either inside of my head or my outward expression.

So, the last day or so, I have had the chance to practice a similar degree of charity. Someone has parked a car across the street facing the wrong way where there are signs every couple of driveways that there is no parking on that side. Yet, since the car is parked the wrong way, he/she didn't see the copious signage down along the road before parking. I considered writing a note but I am not sure me sliding such a note under the windshield wiper will be welcomed. I am thinking that anyone who parks the car the wrong way probably has something going on and I can't guarantee that my helpful gesture will not perceived as being pushy.

The Recycling Bin thievery a couple of years ago taught me that things can escalate quickly even if I am the innocent party. Yet, this car is presenting a bit of a danger in that it is on a curve, there are cars parked correctly on the other side of the road making the passing very narrow, and it will make it difficult for me to pull out the traditional direction tomorrow morning--which if I go the other way-- puts me behind stopped school buses. I have my timing to get to work down to a nearly exact science minute-by-minute. And I have to hit my points.

I am going to try and roll with it for as long as I can. I find it unusual that whoever parked this car (it is not someone who normally does so in the neighborhood), and who he/she/they are staying with, haven't recognized their error yet. It looks like something someone would do who drove and parked tired and/or drunk, and who should have awakened yesterday morning and corrected the impaired parking. If the car is still there tomorrow afternoon, I will call the local police station to do a run on the license plate and contact the owner of the vehicle, as something would seem to be amiss. I let the civil authorities do their job...they are appointed by God to do so.

* We as Christians should have a deep reservoir of charity in our souls but from the looks of our current state of affairs in our country, we don't. We act as aggrieved and angry as the world. Perhaps even more so because it is mingled with a dose of self-righteousness.