A few weeks back, I was walking home in my neighbourhood after buying a bottle of wine for dinner. While walking on the sidewalk, a van came up from an underground parking lot, and to my surprise, failed to brake in time and almost hit me. I was a little shocked at first, jumped back, and used my right hand to brace against his hood, causing a little slapping noise when my hand connected.

Well, since I immediately understood that the van did indeed stop just in time, and there was no accident, I continued to walk home on the sidewalk. I did not attempt to make eye contact with the driver as I didn’t want to accidentally instigate a verbal or even physical confrontation. I did not say anything nor cast any dirty looks. I simply walked on, content that there was no need to cause an issue.

About 3 minutes later, I noticed on my left side that the same burgundy van was now beside me (more or less), in traffic, and again, I didn’t feel the need to look over. Until I heard his voice.

I turned and looked at him, a big, burly man with long dark hair and a beard, in what I guess I would describe as looking like a biker, and, with a matching deep, gravelly voice, said “I’m sorry Brother.”

In a split-second I judged his voice and facial expressions to be sincere, and knew that he felt bad about the almost-accident. There was no doubt in my mind that he was determined to let me know that he was sorry. I believed him.

So I waved my hand to him, switching from a wave to a thumbs-up, and shouted to him “no problem!” Thanks!” And that was that. My faith in humanity was once again restored. There are plenty of good people in the world who make mistakes, and feel the need to fix them. There are still people who practice an almost-rare attitude of “well, if I made a mistake, I’ll own it, and fix it if I can.” He I suppose was one such guy. And I wish him the best. I smiled the rest of the way home.

Ric Phillips, Communication Coach