03 March 2009

Humbled by An Old Lady with a Shovel

Yesterday we had off school with 7 inches of snow. After a little while Renee said I should go out and shovel our sidewalk because others in the neighborhood were doing it, and I could bond with them. This was true, but sadly we only have a small shovel (about 8inches wide). This is one of those small, unscrew the handle to extend it, shovels. I was ashamed of its patheticness, and I told Renee that I didn't want one of the neighbor guys to say, "Hey, why do you have such a small useless shovel? I have a nice spoon for you to use if it's not too much for you to handle" The mocking thoughts went on and on.

So I went out and was shoveling our sidewalk without incident or observation. Then as I went to shovel out the van, I ran the miniscule "shovel" into some ice and it cracked. I thought, "Oh great now my embarassing little shovel broke. Just then an old grandmotherly lady who was watching her grandchildren came out and said laughing, "Your shovel is so small. Why don't you use my shovel because it is much bigger?"

I wanna say that all my shoveling from that point on was to be generous, but I know part of the reason I shoveled out some of the neighbors was because I had to make up for my tiny mockable, slightly cracked pathetic, spoonlike shovel.

1 comment:

Tom said...

Truth. I *definitely* would have mocked you.