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Broken Eggs and Shattered Glass
. . . with my sincere thanks to those late night pranksters!
On a
recent Saturday evening at around midnight, my wife and I
were just about to turn out the light and go to sleep when
we heard the sounds of a group of people talking in the
street, outside our home. Then out of the blue came two loud
thuds above our bedroom window, followed by the noise of
laughter and people running away down our street.
We
both jumped out of bed, I turned on the external lights and
rushed outside unsure of what had caused the two thuds or
what damage I could expect to see. The silence of the night
was broken by the distant sound of people laughing and at
that moment I was of a mind to chase after them, however,
running bare-footed on the road in the dark is not a very
wise thing to do.
I
could hear dripping noises on the driveway and the flood
light above our garage helped me to identify just what had
happened. Our home had been the victim of an egg
bombing!
Being faced with the prospect of cleaning up this sticky
mess in the early hours of the morning was not a pleasing
thought, on top of which I was less than impressed that we
had been singled out for this annoying prank. I decided that
it was too late to clean up the mess, as it would disturb
our neighbours, so it could wait to the morning.
Early next morning with a bucket of warm water and scrubbing
brush in hand, and with the extension ladder placed on the
front wall, I was now ready to wash off what was now two dry
yellowish, egg grit impregnated, 1 metre long patches above
our front bedroom windows.
My task was made even more challenging by the two large
canvas awnings which protect our bedroom windows from the
heat and glare of the afternoon sun. My annoyance with the
late night pranksters was again building to the level of the
night before.
After retracting each of the awnings, something we rarely do
except when there is are very high winds, I then climbed the
ladder to clean up the first patch of egg stain and then
move the ladder to clean the second patch.
As I
climbed the ladder for the second time, I noticed that the
glass in a small window just under the roof line was very
badly cracked. On closer inspection the crack ran
around over half of the outer edge of the window pane. As
the awning protected the window, it was clear to me that the
damage had not been caused by the egg bombing. As I
carefully placed my hand on the glass, I discovered that the
pane of glass was very loose and had the window been closed
with any force, it would have most likely shattered and the
glass dropped to the drive way, some seven metres below.
Just
a few metres away, we have a basketball ring and on
most days of the week there are up to six young people who
play in the immediate area, including both my sons. My
thoughts immediately turned to what could have happened if
the broken glass in the window had gone undetected for much
longer and then suddenly shattered. The likelihood of my
two sons and their friends being seriously injured was
extremely high.
After quickly washing the remaining egg stain off the front
wall and with the help of Tom, my youngest son, I got to
work with some heavy duty masking tape and secured the
cracked window as best I could. Within 24 hours the cracked
window had been replaced and all was back to normal, except
for the small bits of egg shell I kept finding on the front
drive way and stuck to our garage doors.
Over
the next few days, I realised that had our home not been
bombarded by those eggs late on that Saturday night, I may
not have discovered the broken window pane before it
shattered and came down all over our drive way.
Even though it had been an annoyance at time, the broken
eggs and the stains were cleaned up very quickly, however,
the pain that could have been caused by the shattering
of glass would never gone away and would have haunted my
wife and myself, forever and a day.
The
cold shudder that ran down my spine when I first discovered
the cracked window and the thought about the consequences of
someone being seriously injured or even killed, made me
realise just how very lucky we had been.
Frequently in life, the small things that happen to us may
have a negative impact and cause some form of pain, sadness,
discomfort or personal aggravation. It is often said that we
should not 'sweat the small stuff' and always look for the
positive outcome or the silver lining in those dark clouds
of the current circumstance, even though at the time that is
not always an easy thing to do.
My personal experience with the egg bombing on that Saturday
evening reminded me that in most cases there is always a
flip side to everything that happens to us and that often
the flip side can provide a positive outcome or an even
greater benefit, if not now, then at some time in the
future.
From
now on whenever I see or break an egg, I will think of the
egg bombing incident and say a thank you to those late night
pranksters. Equally, I will always be reminded of Jean-Paul
Sartre's quote:
'What is important is not what happens to us, but how we
respond to what happens to us'
Written by Keith Ready
Keith Ready is an Australian based business adviser and
trainer whose specialty is working with his clients to
improve top and bottom line business performance in a
measurable way, through people.
Keith can be contacted via e-mail at
kready@netspace.net.au
or you can visit his website at
www.agiftofinspiration.com.au |
