If you live in Salem, you’ve seen it. It’s a lime green car, and its everywhere. I don’t know who drives it, and I like it that way. Its anonymity allows me to think of it as Salem’s “Knight Rider,” taking on an identity of its own.
I see it as I leave my house for work in the morning, and on weekends when I’m doing my errands. It shops where I shop, eats where I eat and travels the same highways I travel. It has even stopped to let me cross the street during one of my runs. I’ve seen this lime green car so much I began to wonder if there is a lesson to learn from it. In fact, there are several:
What I love about the lime green car is that it screams that’s right — it’s me! There is no blending in or trying to be like everyone else. That car is unique, and like Kermit the Frog its message is “I’m green, I’m beautiful and its what I want to be.” That’s a lesson we can all learn about being comfortable in our own skin, happily oblivious to the opinions of others.
When you are a lime green car, there is no question about where you are at any given time. A lime green car would not be your car of choice if you were trying to be sneaky. So in the words of every mother who ever lived, always do the right thing because you never know who is watching you.
As we rush through our lives, we are often blind to what is right in front of us, unless it is painted lime green. But it shouldn’t take a shocking color to wake us up. Instead of noticing only those things that won’t be ignored, take time to appreciate the quiet things we sometimes take for granted, such as the person that may be sitting in your car next to you.
Just as this car and I share an overlapping path in life, so it is with people we meet along the way. Our lives circle around each other, sometimes coming back to where we started. After I met Doug, my aunt sent me a photo from a wedding more than 25 years ago, showing me standing almost right next to him while the bride tossed her bouquet into the sea of single men. Turns out he was a good friend of the groom and the bride was my cousin, but that was all we had in common on that day. It is one of those mysteries of life that we can make absolutely no impression on someone early on, yet meet again years later and become central to each other’s lives. The lesson here is be nice to everyone, because you never know when your paths may cross again — just know that one day they probably will.
5) Be aware of the impact you have on others
As we travel through the years, each of our interactions, no matter how small, changes the path of others in ways we could never imagine. Like a pebble dropped in the center of a pond whose expanding circles eventually reach the shore, our choices set into motion a chain of events with widespread effect. Did the lime green car intend to stir such deep thoughts in me simply by sharing the same street? Probably not, but that’s life. Who we are is forever intertwined and defined by where we’ve been, who we’ve met along the way and the lessons we’ve learned from it all.
You may find it silly that I would have such deep thoughts about a random car, but the truth is, I can find a life lesson in just about anything. Curious to a fault, my education didn’t stop when I moved from behind the brick walls of college into the world. In fact, it continued in ways that intrigue me still today. In life, we are both students and teachers. And life lessons can come from the darndest of places — even from lime green cars.
