Remember What’s Important

Do you have something that you’ve kept that reminds you of a time from your past? Meredith and I have several of these reminders around the house. She has the baking supplies that her grandmother taught her to bake with and I have a pocket knife and a Bible from my from my grandfathers. Reminders don’t have to be big and they don’t have to remind you of a special person. Maybe it’s a ticket stub, dinner receipt or a fishing hook from a special day that you always want to remember. We have several of these too, a goofy hat from a hot dog joint in Chicago, tickets from the U2 concert and a blue shirt.
I call it my “Remember What’s Important” shirt and it’s not just any blue shirt, at least not to me. It is a Roundtree and Yorke Gold Label with a herringbone pattern and a button down collar. It was my favorite shirt. I would wear if I had a big meeting. It was my lucky shirt. I loved that shirt.
One day after a meeting, that had gone very well, Meredith and I were headed home and I was feeling pretty good about myself. We stopped at the gas station to fill up and I noticed a young lady pulled over near the curb on the side of the lot. She was just sitting in her car but from her body language it looked like she may have been crying. Not wanting to look too obvious I casually walked around the van while it was filling up and notice her driver’s side rear tire was flat.
I finished filling the van while trying to rationalize all the reasons that I needed to climb in the van and head home…not stopping to see if she needed any help. It was hot, I needed to start the grill, and Laura was waiting for Papa to come home and chase her around the back yard. I climbed in the van, started it and put it in gear…as I pulled away from the pump I had decided to head home and start our evening.
That was when it hit me. What if that young lady had been one of my girls or, a few years down the road, my granddaughter? I would want an honest person to help them. I told Meredith what was going on, turned the car to cross the parking lot and pulled up next to her. Meredith asked if she was OK and through her tears she said “no”.
She was having a horrible day. She was dealing with the stress of being a single mom and had just had an argument with her boyfriend. She was on her way to work. The restaurant was about to get hit with a dinner rush and the last thing she needed was a flat tire. She was tried, frustrated with life and was now afraid she may lose her job.
I asked if she had a spare…she had no idea. I dug through the trunk, found the jack and an old spare which had obviously been on the car at one point in time. As I pulled out the spare I realized I hadn’t rolled up the sleeves on my shirt. Unfortunately, I realized it too late…my cuff had rubbed against the wheel, transferring years of road grime and grease to my sleeve. I was kind of surprised that I didn’t get frustrated. I was hot, sweating and had just ruined my favorite shirt…but I knew I was doing the right thing.
When I got home I tried to get the grime off, but it wasn’t going anywhere. I started to throw the shirt away when it hit me. That spot of grease hasn’t ruined the shirt…it has given it character. More importantly it has given me a reminder that helping a single mother is more important than a shirt. I stopped by her restaurant a week later and she still had her job. She was happy to see us and thanked us again for helping her out that day.
I still wear that shirt. I have kept it in the regular rotation to remind myself of what’s really important…and it’s still my favorite shirt, but now it has meaning.