Pushing Cars

Pushing cars at 7am is not recommended, I’d say it’s similar to doing lots of push-ups, except your joints hurt underneath all of your muscles. However, three strangers coming together to help someone is a rare thing. As I was driving to work this morning, yes driving, the skytrain doesn’t run early enough on Sunday, I noticed two people pushing a car. Now I probably wouldn’t have stopped, except this car was at the end of my street in the exact spot I needed to get through to get to the main road. You can see my dilemma. At this point three things went through my mind. I could help them, drive around them, or turn right and go down a different side street to get to the main road. I must have sat there for a minute only, although it felt like much longer before I decided to put on my hazards and run up. 

As I approached I could tell this would be no easy task. Rear-wheel drive and her tires skidded on everything but pavement and pavement is hard to find in 3inches of snow. It looked like the other two had been there for awhile and they seemed very grateful for my added effort. I thought about calling BCAA but I had to go to work and they can take a long time to show up, so I started pushing.  My first assumption had been that the guy and girl were together and seeing her had parked their car on the side of the road and got out to help her. I was wrong. These people had never met before either. What a rare thing that 3 people should meet in the early hours all to help someone in need. We must have been there for 10min at least but after enough scraping away at the snow in front of her tires and enough pushing we finally managed to get enough pavement and traction to get her through the piles of snow and onto the main road.

As we went on our separate ways, me and the guy getting into our respective vehicles and the girl picking up her backpack and walking the rest of the way home I really got to thinking. If I hadn’t stopped, how long would they have been there pushing that car?  Cars are very heavy and one person pushing doesn’t seem very productive.  Would someone else have stopped? I had already seen two cars pass by up the street while I was driving up and they must have seen those two people pushing the car. When I had talked to the girl she said that the car was half a block down where my car was parked when she had gotten there.  They must have been there for awhile, and although the streets were fairly empty there must have been quite a few cars that just passed them by.

Maybe our world still has hope.  Maybe there is still enough good to keep us going. One girl couldn’t push the car up the hill, but in working together we got it done. Key in point, I have learned this lesson. When you are trying to push the proverbial wall, maybe it isn’t an actual wall.  Maybe it’s just a heavy car and if you got someone else to help you it would move, slowly, but move nonetheless.