You sometimes hear about random acts of kindness.
There’s another, somewhat, similar phrase, ‘acts of goodness.’
‘Goodness’ is one of those words you think you know, but just to be sure, you, maybe, look it up, anyway. ‘Goodness’ is “the state or quality of being good.”
Just hearing the news, these days, can make you mighty cynical. So, when there’s a little goodness, how good that is!
A few days ago, the painting crew that spruced up homes in our community, was breaking camp, loading ladders and other equipment on their trucks, and from a window in our house we could see them meticulously cleaning up, in areas where their equipment had been stored. They were sweeping down, or, as I recall from military lingo, ‘policing up’ their storage areas.
What I mentioned, in the Daily Post, about catalytic converter thieves victimizing our old car, it’s been repaired, and it feels so good getting back behind the wheel and firing up the old engine.
Without getting into all the details of what happens when a vehicle’s catalytic converter is stolen, let’s just say it’s disconcerting. You can’t drive it the way it is. You’ve got to have it repaired. And if it’s an old vehicle, insurance companies may decide it’s a total loss, meaning it could wind up in a salvage yard. Because the cost of having an old vehicle repaired might be greater than its value.
You’re crushed, imagining your old car being taken apart, or being mashed down in one of those car-crushing machines.
Our sedan was saved from such a sad ending, because of some acts of goodness. Beginning with a tow truck driver, who commiserated with us, as he was securing our car on his truck.
And the owner of a local, long-established shop who just knew our aging sedan would be okay.
And folks at the insurance company who patiently fielded our questions.
The repair shop, called 50/50 Muffler & Brakes, has been in business, out here in San Carlos, California, for several decades. It’s a business, we’ve learned, that’s been involved in the community. Classic cars, way older than our sedan, have been worked on at the shop — really old ones that roll down local streets, when parades are held.
So, something that started out worrisome and disconcerting for us, turned out okay.
Because of acts of goodness that got our old car back to its good old self, again.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.