In the early evening last night after I had unloaded some groceries and had come back downstairs to to move my truck back into the public parking lot across the street, I heard a loud bang/crash.

I looked into the parking lot and saw a small beat-up little formerly sporty car had backed into a parked car, a young man was outside the car and the driver’s door was open, he seemed to have come out to inspect damage; but I had a sense that something wasn’t quite right, it all looked sort of jumbled. So I hurried over towards them and the young guy jumped into his car and took off in a hurry.

When I got to the spot where they had been I saw someone laying on the ground. I went over to see what the problem was. It was a young woman about 14 or 15 just laying there and then starting to get up, she seemed to be somewhat dazed. I looked at her carefully as she was sitting in the ground to see if there were any signs of trauma evident (EMT training kicking in:), her jeans were ripped around the knee, but that could just as easily have been fashion.

She was a young black woman with hair nicely done with extensions, very elaborate fingernails, a nice purse, and a pink iPhone. She looked like she was going out for a Saturday night special date. One that appeared to have already turned out rather badly. I asked her if she was OK, or needed any help. She just shook her head. My best guess was that she was in shock, not from trauma but from having been some sort of victim who was left laying on the ground, in the dark part of a well lit municipal parking lot. As she stood up I asked her if there was anything that I could for her? Anyone I could call on her behalf? Was there any injury? She shook her head and started to walk off towards the street. I watched her go, my heart was sad.

I was sad for the world, the people in it, and the delusions that put us into untenable positions often times in our lives; and how we become hard and distrustful as just one negative result.

Dashed hopes, dashed dreams.

A tough lesson perhaps. An episode that will inform this young woman about the type of company she keeps, and perhaps seek alternatives. O,r an episode that will have that girl feel she did something wrong, and needs to alter her behavior to be more in line with the wishes of the people who left her laying in the dark. Or somewhere between those two possibilities.

It caused me to reflect back on the kind of person I had been when I was was young and the great mistakes in perception and action that I made. And that, actually, gave me hope. Because today I’m not that person anymore. Lord knows I still make plenty of mistakes in perception and action but they are much less extreme and hurtful than in the past. So, everybody has a chance to take in negative experiences and turn them into teaching. Maybe not all at once, or right away, but at some future time.

The future starts now, what a blessing.