Yesterday, I stopped at my local Dunkin Donuts to bring some coffee back to the house and fulfill my hunter-gatherer instincts. I had to get up a little earlier than I would have liked to get to church, and it was particularly snowy and sloppy, all of which may have grumpified my mood a bit. But as I turned into the parking lot, which has a weird little curly drive to get into the drive through line, this blue truck with South Carolina plates cut me off and hopped in front of me.
I'm generally a pretty calm guy. I try not to sweat the small stuff. But for some reason, this just burned me. I yelled some things in the car. When his rear wheel drive started to fishtail, I may have even rooted for him to smack into the big yellow pole. (That didn't happen.) And look, I fully realize that this person cost me all of three extra minutes. In the grand scheme of things, this was nothing.
But, when I got to the window with my money out, the lady working there waved me off. "The guy in the truck paid for you. He realized he cut you off and felt bad about it."
It totally changed my morning. It was such a nice thing to do and shows the value of the little things. I don't think I would have thought of doing what he did, even if I realized that I'd made the same mistake. This gentleman raised the bar. I hope I keep it in mind the next time I do something stupid.