I have decided to deviate from my prescribed course a tad to do some sight-seeing. So much for consistency…However, I feel that the lesson that I learned this morning is too great to pass up on sharing and the vice associated with it is so discreet in nature that we all fall victim to it in some manner or another. For that reason, I want to summon in from the shadows and chastise myself publicly.

This morning was different from other mornings. Little Ansleigh had a doctor’s appointment at 10:00 so I worked from home until 9:30 when Sarah and I got into our separate vehicles and drove to the doctor’s office. Sarah was in the lead and swooped into a fine parking spot on the second row, meanwhile I am scanning the covered parking deck for open spots, when, out of the corner of my eye, I see the would-be culprit. It was the “would-be” culprit as opposed to the “culprit culprit” because some airhead parked their Cadillac Escalade diagonally and took up two complete spots.

I was heated. I found an open spot fifty feet from Sarah (which is like a mile in parking lot measurements) and got out, shut my door just a bit more forcefully than usual and immediately started badmouthing the perpetrator. Can you believe the laziness? The arrogance? The gall? This wasn’t an accidental “oh I am slightly on your line” kind of park-job, this was a flagrantly dismissive “I could care less about parking decency” kind of park-job. It was debatably worse than someone leaving a buggy in the middle of the parking lot at the grocery store, which…never mind, I can’t even right now.

I probably went on for a solid minute and a half before I finally let it go, so upset was I by the sight. Even though Sarah agreed with me, I am positive she was relieved when I finally shut up so we could walk to the waiting room in peace.

(For those of you who are curious, Ansleigh was very brave throughout her appointment. She pensively observed the nice nurse and doctor even as they poked and prodded her as if she were a science project. Maybe she will want to be a pediatrician one day. )

After the appointment was done, I left the office right away to get to work. As I walked into parking deck, I noticed the metallic Escalade that was the source of my rage just a short time before. But what I saw was not the same slipshod parking job that I expected; rather, it was a very crisp and symmetrically parked vehicle. I furrowed my brow and pressed my lips in confusion as I admired how beautifully this SUV was parked.

Then it hit me. Maybe I was wrong about this person. Perhaps they were not lazy or arrogant or dismissive. I connected the dots in my mind. What if this was the parent of a poor child that they had to rush to the doctor’s office for an emergency? I played out the scene in my head. The dad pulls up to the curb as the mom hops out with the toddler and rushes inside. The dad whips the Escalade around furiously trying to find a spot so he can be with his sick child and spots two open spaces. He slams on the breaks and shuts the engine off, leaving the car parked poorly for a while until the situation stabilizes.

This was a sobering image to be sure. Maybe my imagination ran away from me but judging by the perfectness of the parking job as I returned to my car and based on our proximity to a doctor’s office, I do not think I was too far off.

Thus, I learned my lesson today to think twice and judge third. Inevitably I will fall prey to this vice again as it is so easy to climb on the soap box and disparage and disdain those who do not meet the measure of my principals. But I hope that the memory of this story will give me pause to think twice before I cast my judgment.