Wisdom From the Front Seat of a Tow Truck

Yesterday was a Very. Bad. Day.

But remarkably, by the end of it, I was feeling pretty good.

All day yesterday I was crabby. Beyond crabby. I was frustrated and grumpy and prickly with an undercurrent of angry. I’m not exactly sure why (I think the weather had a lot to do with it), but it was one of those days where I couldn’t see the good in anything. I was defensive and frustrated and just plain unhappy. It was one of those days in which you could have told me I was a million dollar lottery winner, and I would have bitched about the taxes.

Yeah, it was one of those days.

After a day where I was so unhappy with every choice I had ever made to get me to that particular day, a day where I honestly wondered what it would take to chuck it all and move with Mr. Martini to a sheep farm in Australia, I finally was released from work and went to my car on the sixth floor of the parking garage.

And my car wouldn’t start.

And my cellphone battery was dead.

I silently cursed the heavens, and oh so luckily managed to catch Awesome Co-Worker B before she had left the garage. She let me borrow her cellphone, and I called Mr. Martini and then AAA, who said they’d be there in about 45 minutes or so. B offered to wait with me, but I figured it was just the battery, and all I’d need was a jump, and told her not to worry, and to go home. She reluctantly left after also offering to leave me her cellphone (how nice was that?) but I told her not to worry, I’d just wait in the car and read a book and I was sure I’d be on my way home in no time.

Flash forward a (very, very, very cold) hour later, and AAA’s “Rescue Ranger” couldn’t get the car started, and needed to call a tow. Which would take another hour and a half or so. Or, as little as 10 minutes. He really couldn’t say.

Not wanting to miss the tow truck, but wanting to let Mr. M know what was happening (remember, I had no cellphone) I ran across the street to my office, where amazingly Other Awesome Co-Worker S was working late. I called Mr. M, and let him know that I’d be even later. Other Awesome Co-Worker S said she’d swing by my car on her way out, and see if I was still there. Which she did, and she even waited with me and kept me warm until the tow truck guy showed up at 8:30.

Tow Truck Guy was a little gruff. A little rough around the edges. But I’m a firm believer in that little tingle that you might feel in the back of your neck when you sense someone is out to hurt you. You know what I mean? I had that feeling a few times when I lived in Boston on my own, and even in Chicago a few times. I respect that feeling.

Tow Truck Guy, for all of his gruff exterior, didn’t give me that feeling. And I knew that I was in good hands when he asked for my keys, and I handed him my entire key ring. “Don’t ever do that,” he said. “Don’t ever give someone all of your keys, your house key and everything, when they ask for them.” As he spoke, he twisted my car key off of the key chain. “Just give them your car key. Like this.”

Since the tow truck wouldn’t fit in the garage (the clearance was too low) he had to push my car down the six flights of the garage (which apparently isn’t that big of a deal, since it’s all downhill, but it freaked me out).  Other Awesome Co-Worker S waited long enough to make sure that he was able to get my car hitched up, while I made arrangements with B (via S’s cellphone), who awesomely agreed to meet me at the garage and drive me home.

Tow Truck Guy got the car hooked up, and we were on our way to the garage.

And here is where my day turned around.

I asked Tow Truck Guy his name. “Scott,” he said. “I’m Susan,” I said. “Pleased to meet you, Susan.” Scott replied.

On the ride to the garage, I learned a lot about Scott. Scott is a recovered alcoholic and drug addict, seven years clean. Scott used to be homeless. Scott now works for a center that rehabilitates homeless and drug-addicted veterans. In the winter, when his job gets slow, he drives a tow truck. “I can’t be bored,” he said. “I was an addict 24-7, and now I need to be in recovery 24-7. So when it gets slow at work, I drive this truck. This way, I still get to help people.”

“You sure helped me tonight,” I said.

“That’s right. You see, I was a little put out when they called me for this run. I was supposed to finish at 8 tonight, and I was all the way across town. But then they told me that a young lady was way up on the sixth floor of a garage, downtown, at night, and I knew I had to help. What if you were my daughter or my sister up there? Yup, I knew I had to take this run.”

“Well, I do appreciate it.”

“Yup. I try to do good each day. Now that I’m recovered, I thank God for every day that I’m clean, and I try to give back. I wake up each day and seek clarity, and am thankful I found a spiritual God to help me through. You notice I said spiritual God, not religious. I think everyone has to find their own version of a spiritual God, and serve him. That’s what I try to do.”

Scott said that he tries to give as much to the world as he can, because he knows that he’ll get the same in return. And, as he put it, “I figure, if I’m good, the devil will have to work hard to get me. And the devil’s lazy. He don’t want to work hard. So I work harder than him and keep God in me, so the devil will move along. I’m too much work.” He chuckled.

We had a really nice talk the whole way to the garage. He told me about his wife, and their dog, and how much he loves his job and his life, and how lucky he feels each and every day to be alive, and able to give something back.

Remember the bad day I’d been having? Talking with Scott totally turned me around. It was hard for me to stay so grumpy and angry about everything, when I was listening to someone so purposeful about their daily happiness. He made it a point not to let the petty frustrations get to him, because he kept an eye on the big picture. Even if I didn’t agree with all of his beliefs about God and the devil, really he was talking about optimism and pessimism and internal demons and what it takes to get through the day, and how what you give is what you get.

Granted, I’m still going to have bad days – one conversation in a tow truck isn’t going to relieve me from my mood swings, and that’s fine. But last night, after a really, really bad day, those words of optimism were just what I needed to hear.

Thanks, Scott.