Image via CanyonChasers/YouTube
We’ve all been there: after a long day you’re relaxing in the evening when your phone alerts you to motion outside your house. Your heart races as you expect some bad guys trying to break into your house, only to see it’s a door-to-door solicitor, or a bird, or maybe the neighbor kid playing in your driveway yet again.
Classic Lancia Delta crashes into the crowd at the Turin Motor Show.
Your fear melts into annoyance. After all, can’t people control their kids? What if he were to get hurt, or you back your back up and hit him, are you going to get sued? We’re sure thoughts like those were going through this guy’s head when he kept getting alerts of a little boy riding his bicycle in his driveway almost every evening.
He chose to do something amazing, drawing out a racetrack in chalk on his driveway. The kid had something different and fun to do instead of just zipping around on the cracked concrete. In other words, this man chose peace over war, understanding over outrage.
In fact, he dared to put a smile on a child’s face, a child he probably never met before in his life. He taught the kid what the thrill of hugging the turns on a circuit feels like, maybe giving him a taste for motorsports later in his life.
The kid even waves at the security camera over the garage door along with his dad, a silent thank you to the man who gave him some extra joy in the evenings.
But it wasn’t just the kid on his bike who enjoyed the track. Other people started riding it as well: teens on their bicycles, moms pushing strollers, other little kids on scooters. The man’s simple kind gesture entertained the neighborhood.
As men, we can choose to tear people down or build them up. There is no neutral, no stasis, so don’t think you can fence sit on this issue. You’re either strengthening society or actively wrecking it by not building.
Choose to make the world a better place.
Image via CanyonChasers/YouTube
