Slow Down and Pay Attention
A young and successful executive was travelling down a neighbourhood street going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching as kids darted out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.
As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a rock smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and spun the Jag back to the spot where the rock had been thrown. He jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid who was standing there and pushed him against a parked car shouting, “What do you think you are doing?”
Building up a head of steam he went on, “That is a new car and the dent from the rock you threw is going to cost a lot of money to repair. Why did you do it?”
“Please sir, please. I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do,” pleaded the youngster. “I threw the rock because no one else would stop…”
Tears were dripping down the boy’s chin as he pointed around the parked car. “It’s my brother, sir,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him.”
Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair, sir? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be okay.
“Thank you and may God bless you, sir,” the grateful child said to him. The man then watched the little boy push his brother toward their home. It was a long walk back to his Jaguar… a long, slow walk. He never did repair the car door. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a rock at you to get your attention.
—Author Unknown
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Comments
This is a stupid story.
Giving every schmuck you pass by the opportunity to get your attention without having to throw a rock at you is not a profound or even a useful message, nor is it one of the reasons people should “slow down and pay attention”.
The number of times the schmuck trying to get your attention has some legitimate reason to be getting your attention is certainly no more than 1 in 1000. And usually, if they have a real reason to get your attention there are ways that they can do so.
The story isn’t even believable - it’s insulting, really; does the writer expect us to believe that the best way to get the attention of the speeding jaguar was to find a rock and throw it? Why didn’t the kid stand in the road waving his arms and pointing at the fallen wheelchair, or something? There was no need to wreck the guy’s car.
Even if there was a need, then the need was justified by circumstance. The guy shouldn’t “slow down” because of what happened, he should only slow down if he was going too fast to be safe.
David, Ruth, Joy, I’m glad you enjoyed the story and its lesson.
Paul, thanks for your hilarious comment. You must be a barrel of laughs at a fiction convention. 
Continue to develop your razor-sharp gift for sophistry.
This little story seems so true, almost quite touching too. Nice one
David