Gimme a Push

Three years ago I had a midlife crisis and I solved it the American way – I bought an overpriced, imported red convertible. I really did my homework before driving it off of the lot and could recite the size of the wheel base, horsepower, valve number, true cost to own ratio, etc. in my sleep. However, I lived to regret ignoring three words that kept appearing over and over on the spec sheet – rear wheel drive. Translation: My status car doesn’t drive worth a squat in the snow.

And so, a few Sundays ago I was stranded uphill for three hours, half-on and half-off a snowy, busy road, waiting for a tow truck. I had single-handedly backed up traffic for miles behind me since my stranded car had inconveniently turned two lanes into one-and-a-half. Believe me, there is nothing as humbling as watching hundreds of cars skid past you, wondering which one will slide on the ice into your left rear door (luckily no one did).

When I was first struggling to make it up the hill a few people pulled over to push me. “We’re from New York. We’re used to this,” the first couple explained. Alas, no luck. With five people pushing my car from the rear and the side, our only reward was the sound of tires spinning on ice. A few others tried again about 45 minutes later and managed to move me almost off of the road and not quite into a ditch. (Even a cop came over to see if I was all right. I told him I was fine and waiting for a tow truck. Only later did I remember the case of beer sitting proudly on my passenger seat).

And so I sat and thought (what else could I do?) I thought about the cars with multiple passengers who sped by me, sometimes throwing me dirty looks. I thought about how grateful I was to the people who did try to push me up the hill, or at least get me out of the way.

And I thought about how all of us need a push sometimes. Without a push (or a tow truck in my case) I wasn’t budging until the snow and ice melted – which happened 24 hours later. I thought about how all of us could use a push every single day – sometimes just a smile and a “hello” – to get us out of our mental ditches or up a hill when we’re stuck. How often do we choose to drive by, just like those cars that passed me that day?

We all have dozens of chances every day to push someone. You might not know that they need it, or they might not know that they need it, but who couldn’t benefit from an extra boost?

So maybe all of us can start pushing people a little more. Be a just a little nicer, open doors, help out those drivers on the side of the road. Let’s get each other out of the ditch. It’s no fun being stranded.

Get out and give back.